Runner
by CompYES
Summary: "Mint is extremely invasive. Mint grows and survives, even when starved and poisoned. Better not to plant it at all." Second SI/OC quick fic, inspired by "Catch Your Breath" and "Forethought."
1. Chapter 1

**Runner**

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**Warnings: **Spoilers!, angst muffins, Danzo, child abuse, Ramen, allusions to squicky underage stuff, suicide, YOUTH, character deaths, some co-dependence

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_Mint is extremely invasive. This fast growing plant sends out runners that will overtake a plant bed. Plant them in containers or beds separate so they do not spread. Mint grows and survives, even when starved and poisoned._

_Better not to plant it at all._

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**I.**

The baby cried a lot.

She just kept crying and crying, and everyone at the orphanage had given up on trying to sooth her out of her fits. Even the kindest hearted and dedicated individuals constantly needed respite from the child's squalls. The best part of everyone's day was when she finally fell asleep, too tired to continue being upset.

It was at a time like that that Saori, one of the newer girls hired there, was told to go in and check on the infant. Cursing Kiyo for managing to snag making breakfast before she had, she let herself into the room and approached the fitfully sleeping child. Carefully, so as not to wake it, she lifted the child from its crib and sniffed. Diaper was still clean, she determined somewhat gratefully. She went to put the child back down, but froze when she noticed that its eyes were open and watching her.

Old, haunted eyes on children was not something Saori was unfamiliar with. There were a few children at the orphanage brought to them by the Uchiha Military Police, victims of unspeakable things, and those were the eyes they carried with them. But that didn't explain why this child had those eyes. She'd only just been left with them a couple months ago, cut out of the mother who had died during the birth. Months old, and already like this.

"What's made you so wrong?" she murmured to the baby.

The baby didn't answer. She just continued to stare with those bleak eyes.

Saori sighed. It would be best to just get the thing fed and put back to bed before the wailing commenced once more. Tucking the child into her arm, she moved as quickly as she dared to find a bottle in the kitchen.

**II.**

"Children!" the orphanage matron called. "Children!"

The girl standing at her side watched as children of various ages poured into the room, followed closely by other employees the orphanage. Even as she contrived a look of affability about her person, the girl's eyes catalogued each of the children very closely. In her head, she'd drawn a chart with three categories and began sorting them.

_No. Nin. Ne._

Already, she'd caught three of them taking her measure as well, their eyes having darted straight to the hitae-ate she'd purposefully strapped to her hip. Not noticeably visible. Unless you were looking for it.

One of those children was immediately dismissed when they loudly began barraging her with questions about her being a ninja. The girl continued watching the entire group, but she kept a special eye on the two, the boy and the girl, who had caught it before.

"Children, please, settle down so I can introduce our guest," the matron called out. Once they had quieted, she spoke once more. "Everyone, this is Yakushi Nonou-chan, and she used to live here with us before became a successful kunoichi and got her own place!"

All of those tiny faces swiveled over to look up at her in pure adoration. Nonou gave an embarrassed chuckle and reached up to fiddle with her glasses. As she did so, she surreptitiously glanced at the girl child.

Had she imagined the girl flinching during her introduction?

**III.**

Sounds of pants, flesh hitting flesh, and pained whimpers filled the room.

There was a boy facing a girl, crouched several feet away from one another. They breathed heavily, a kunai held by each of them.

He took in her appearance, noting that she looked terrible. Both of them had been fighting for so long, he'd lost track of time. His only measure of time now was the cuts he had managed to carve into her skin with his kunai. For a second, he caught himself remembering a moment long ago. Back before either of them had been brought to this place.

A time when they had both had simply been children at the orphanage, and their greatest concern was whether they would be adopted. Or whether they would go to the civilian or ninja academy. It wasn't weird for there to be kids who didn't want to be ninja, but he remembered how the one time someone had asked her if she wanted to be a ninja, she had yelled and screamed. It was really strange, someone who hated ninja as much as she did.

He wondered now if maybe she had been the only one of them thinking straight back then.

Pulled out of the orphanage, promised a new and happy life, and then put into this pit of suffering.

This was hell.

And he felt sorry for this girl, just as he felt sorry for himself. Neither of them had wanted this. Neither of them deserved this.

However, after today, one of them would no longer have to be here.

It all came down to this fight today. He knew he was a better fighter than she was. He was stalling. This fight would've been over much sooner if he had been more serious from the start. A fight to the death was a terrible time to make decisions about the future, but it was an important decision, it needed time to be thought over. They weren't really children anymore and this wasn't a game, and he couldn't make a mistake and regret it forever.

Only children were allowed to make mistakes.

His mind made up, he raised his kunai and prepared to charge. He saw her do the same, and asked her for her forgiveness. It was time for him to leave.

.

A moment later, as his eyelids became heavier than lead and wetness dribbled from the corner of his lips, he offered the girl a smile as he hovered over her. The first he had given anyone in a very long time. Though her expression never betrayed her, the liquid leaking from her eyes into her hair did. His rusty smile creaked a little wider.

Was she crying for him? Or for herself?

_Probably both_, he thought, as he finally collapsed on top of her, his eyes closing for the last time.

**IV.**

"Dismissed. Operative Hakka, stay."

All of the other operatives shunshined out, leaving the lone operative he had called out behind. She had just returned from a mission in which she was team captain for the first time. What she likely had not realized was that there had been two other senior operatives with her evaluating her performance.

Her success at the information gathering/infiltration turned assassination mission had been expected. If she had underperformed in any way, he would have been severely disappointed. He only wanted the best on the mission he would now be sending the girl on, and if she had failed now, he would have had to scrap it. She was the only operative he had of appropriate age with the necessary skill set to send on this.

"Mask," he ordered.

The girl complied, and soon he was staring at the face of his youngest operative. Almost nine years old, and the best he had at information gathering and infiltration. Her age played a part in that, but it was her high intelligence and talent at slipping into whatever role was required of her that set her apart. Child operatives were both ideal and disastrous to train. Their youth made them malleable, but ultimately they were too weak and dependent to be truly useful. Operative Hakka was not the first child operative he had trained. She was simply the first who was able to survive long past activation thanks to her consistent ability to take initiative and improvise when the mission called for it.

That was why most child operatives had a shelf life of a year or less once they were put into the field.

(What he would have given to pick Hatake Sakumo's brain for training methods before the fool had taken his own life.)

"Operative Hakka," he said softly, his lips forming into something that could be considered a warm, fatherly smile, "You did well on this last mission."

"Arigatou, Danzo-sama," she said with a bow.

"So well in fact that I have decided to give you a solo mission."

"It is an honor." She sunk even deeper into her bow.

He handed her a scroll and began speaking as she started looking through it.

"As I said, it is a solo mission of indefinite length. You will be gathering intelligence on your targets, a potential political threat and his ward, and reporting directly back to me with it. No detail is insignificant. For the duration of this mission, you will not receive any other assignments unless there is an emergency."

She nodded.

"Who should I be?"

"Anyone, as long as you do not make your targets suspicious of you."

"Necessity of assassination?"

"Low."

"Necessity of seduction?"

"At your discretion."

The girl rolled the scroll back up, handed it back, and bowed lowly once more.

"I am pleased to have this opportunity."

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**AN: **Bad, bad author-san. Re-caught the writing bug, but it dragged me towards another damn SI instead of my other works. Luckily for all of you, it held my attention long enough that I actual wrote all of it out. All of it. So I will be posting chapters of this once a week until it is done. (Isn't that a change of pace?) Unlike my other SI fic which is likely to be epic length, this will be short, only about 10 bitsy chapters depending on how I mix and match segments. Finally, this fic is also unbeta'd. I just scratched it out between work breaks for the last two weeks, so I apologize for that.

This fic is inspired heavily by Lang Noi's "Catch Your Breath" and Beemera's "Forethought," who have nailed Kakashi Gaiden into my brain. Their fics are awesome (from what I've read so far). Please go read their work.

**AN2** (6-26-2015): I originally had this all written out, and then half way through, Kishimoto finished canon and I wanted to crawl in into hole and pretend it never happened. It basically wrecked my plot, and I've been re-writing. The story's a little twistier and turnier than originally intended, but with all hopes still good. The warnings at the beginning have also been updated.


	2. Chapter 2

**V.**

"Hello, my name is Hakka. It is nice to meet all of you."

The girl cocked her head to the side, her eyes slipping closed and her lips twitching in a smile.

There was silence on the rooftop as the three males standing on the roof with her stared expectantly. She continued to smile. They continued to stare.

She smiled.

They stared.

She smiled.

And.

"Hakka-chan," the blonde man and only adult in the group said, sweat dropping, "You're supposed tell us more about yourself - about likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams - so we can have a better idea about what kind of teammate you will be."

"Oh." Her strange, jade green eyes popped open. "Gomen Namikaze-sensei, but I do not like or dislike anything, nor do I have any hobbies or dreams."

The rooftop was once again plunged into silence. One of the boys, goggles nestled in his messy dark hair, glanced at his sensei and the other familiar looking kid who was supposedly his other teammate. Both of them looked about as lost as he did. No likes or dislikes? Frankly, he called bullshit.

"Oh come on, there has to be something you can tell us!"

Her gaze zeroed in on him. He began to sweat under the weight of that disconcerting stare. Was she upset? Angry at him? Finally, thankfully, she broke eye contact, shaking her head.

"Well, uh…" Namikaze-sensei began, saving the boy the trouble of saying anything else, "Then I guess that's all for today then. Alright, Team 7, we'll be meeting at Training Ground 3 tomorrow."

"For training, sensei?" the dark haired boy asked excitedly.

The other boy snorted.

"Not quite Obito-kun," Namikaze-sensei answered, "I will be testing you and Hakka-chan, to see whether or not you really will be working with Kakashi-kun and me. If you fail, you will be sent back to the Academy."

"WHAT?!"

(He'd swear later on that he hadn't shrieked like a girl.)

It was already bad enough that he was going to be on a team with a now very familiar jerk and a creepy weirdo, and not with Rin-chan. Now he may not even be on a team period.

_What did I do to deserve this?_

**VI.**

"My apologies, Hatake-san," someone above him murmured.

The sun blocked his view of their face. He would have lifted an arm to block the light streaming down into his eyes, but not being able to move anything from the neck down made that a little difficult.

"What did you do?" he grit out, pretending he couldn't hear the loser howling with laughter in the background.

"Senbon coated with a mild paralytic agent," his teammate responded clinically before kneeling beside him and swiping the inner side of his arm above his armguards with a finger, "Nicked you right here while you were punching me."

Somewhere between enraged and impressed, Kakashi offered a simple, "Hn."

He began to panic a little when she pulled another senbon out and made to jab him with it. Though he'd never admit it, he was more than a little relieved when Minato-sensei was suddenly there at her side, grabbing her wrist to keep her from sticking it in him. Kakashi watched as she blinked before looking at sensei questioningly.

"The match is over Hakka-chan," the blond explained calmly, tugging her wrist down.

Because he knew his sensei, he could see the worry, frustration, and disappointment that lurked in the man's expression. It wasn't obvious though, sensei was a jounin for a reason.

"I know that," Hakka commented, "But Hatake-san is still paralyzed. I need to reverse it."

"Reverse…?" he heard sensei murmur, before a light went off behind sensei's eyes.

One last measuring look, and then he released the girl's arm. In a flash, she stuck the senbon into Kakashi's arm right where she'd gotten him with the first one. The boy winced at the feeling and for a terrible moment, wondered if she would be cold blooded enough to lie to their sensei and really harm or kill him while he was defenseless.

The minute feeling began to return, his body tingling strangely as it did, he finally dismissed that worry. Minato-sensei moved to his side to help him sit up. For a moment, he wanted to ask sensei something about his female teammate, but whatever it was got stuck in his throat. It wasn't like he really wanted to know anything about that creepy girl anyway.

Instead, he settled for watching as she trotted over to the moron who was still rolling around on the floor and flicked him on the ear.

"Uchiha-san, please stop laughing. This is the first and likely only time I will ever best Hatake-san. With knowledge of my methods, he will be able to counter any attempts I make to paralyze him in future spars. Now," she paused to grasp the other boy by the forearm and pull him to his feet, "It is time for our match."

He watched her drag a babbling Obito into position across from her. The idiot began to sweat when he noticed her holding several senbon between her fingers as she settled into ready position. Kakashi attempted to hide his own flinch from sensei at the sight of them, narrowing his eyes so it would seem like he was focusing on watching the fight instead.

"Stop glaring Kakashi-kun," he heard the man say, as hand came down on his head.

Frowning under his mask, he leaned away from the hand.

His body was still tingling.

**VII.**

Not for the first time, he wished sensei wasn't such a damn pervert.

Minato really hated these clandestine meetings Jiraiya-sensei set up in the red-light district. Even though Kushina understood about his sensei's eccentricities and him getting caught up in them, he really wished she didn't have to be. Hanging around in the red light district would usually be reason enough to make any normal person's girlfriend upset. Only once had he ever voiced his complaint to sensei, only to be laughed off by him and teased about being whipped.

If he hadn't shaken away his thoughts right at that moment, he would've missed catching sight of something peculiar through the beaded doorway of a brothel he was passing. As it was, he had looked up and his eyes had landed on a girl. He wasn't blind; he could see she was attractive. And younger than him, but there was little else worth noting. Still, something about her gave him a vague sense of familiarity. So familiar, it had him stopping in the middle of the street for a closer look. When just looking at her didn't get him anywhere, he extended his chakra sense.

Maybe she was just one of the usual girls hanging off sensei's arm when he was in Konoha. When Minato's senses reached the girl's chakra and started feeling it out, his heart just about stopped beating and his stomach turned over.

Her signature was one that he had become very familiar with during the last months.

It was a struggle to stay right where he was, instead of marching in there and dragging her out by her arm. Sighing, he instead leaned against the wall opposite the brothel to wait, watch, and try to understand what this was. After a second of thinking it over, he performed a quick genjutsu to make where he stood go unnoticed by passerby and then summoned a toad to send a message to sensei. He didn't know how long this would take, but Jiraiya-sensei could wait.

He remained camped out there for almost half an hour before he felt a sudden displacement of air at his side. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Jiraiya-sensei lounging against the wall right next to him. Normally, he would've greeted him, but he was too engrossed in his stakeout to do so.

"This is your more important business, Minato?"

"Hai."

They watched as the girl nuzzled closer into a client's side, and bared her neck for him, giggling coquettishly when the man's lips attached themselves there.

"Cute," the older man commented with barely feigned disinterest, "Who is she?"

The younger man had to take a calming breath through his nose before responding.

"That's my student, using an advanced partial genjutsu technique to augment her appearance."

Even though he didn't look, he could tell that the other man was taken aback.

"I thought you said she was ten! They're not supposed to-"

"I know that," Minato said, his words trailing off into a growl.

"But you didn't know about this."

"No." The blond man shoved his balled up fists into his pockets. "But I'm going to find out how and why."

A hand dropped on his shoulder.

"Jeeze," Jiraiya-sensei huffed, "And I thought Kakashi-kun was your problem child."

Minato chuckled darkly.

"So did I."

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**AN:** Next chapter, next week on Monday. Just as a heads up for the future, the length of these chapters/segments will vary. Also, there is no pattern to whose POV will or will not be used. I just write from whoever's POV I think is interesting. It's a nice break from being trapped in 1st person POV like in _Cassandra_.

P.S. It's not that I hate Kishimoto, just his screwed up NTO timeline. I remember agonizing over Minato's age once for _Cassandra_, and now I'm doing it again for this.

P.P.S. Danzo is apparently my favorite plot device.


	3. Chapter 3

**VIII.**

The woman paused in her eating to glance at the girl stirring her chopsticks in broth.

In her mind, she tried to recall their first meeting. What she was left with was a vague recollection of a dinner with her boyfriend's team where she spent most of her time wrapped up in Minato, amusing herself with feeding the boys' antics, and eating. Admittedly, she really hadn't paid much attention to the only female member of Minato's team when he had finally decided to introduce them to her. Every other person in the four man team had a more dynamic character, especially the Uchiha boy. Somehow, that kid even had a way of bringing Kakashi-kun to life, even if it was just to fight over nothing.

She'd tried to make small talk at first; thinking she could coax out an interesting inner nature to the quiet girl. The girl just sat there listening blankly to her and offering clipped but polite answers that revealed little more than the minimum required of her. While she was certainly more verbose than Kakashi-kun (not that that was hard), it was pretty significant when someone was more emotionally cut off than said boy.

Where she wanted to wrap both boys up in her arms and cuddle them like they were ill behaved and un-house-trained puppies, the girl made her want to put pole lengths between the two of them like she was the moldy mutated food at the back of her refrigerator.

Weeks later, she now found herself on some kind of bizarre adoption blind date with the very girl.

Now, she loved her boyfriend. He was a kind man, and a great shinobi.

But to be frank, he could be a bit of a baka, too.

He had barged into her apartment just the other day and proposed dropping a kid in her lap. While Minato claimed that he just needed her to keep an eye on the girl for some reason, she knew there was more to it. What he was asking was basically raising a child for an undefined amount of time. If he thought that because she was female, she'd be able to tap into some deeply (very deeply) buried maternal instincts, he had another think coming. She really didn't know the first thing about raising kids. The only lessons she could possibly impart on a child would be how to swear, brawl, and burn water.

And how to eat a bowl of ramen in less than two seconds.

First thing she had done was take a breath. Next thing was give Minato a flat and unsympathetic no.

She felt for him and for the kid, but she was unshakably certain that she was the wrong human being for the job he was asking of her. And at the time, it had seemed like he accepted her steadfast refusal.

Only, she had been wrong seeing as how just before disappearing on her during lunch, her dumbass had informed her that the girl's apartment had suddenly, _mysteriously_ been _flooded_ and she was now looking for somewhere to live. And of course, the moment he disappeared, the aforementioned girl sat down with her at Ichiraku's.

Kushina took a moment to really look at her. Thinner than a kunoichi should be, with dark grooves carved under each pale eye. He'd told her that the girl had been an orphan her entire life, and that once she became a genin, she was forced to live on her own without the orphan's stipend. A genin's salary was not enough for a child to pay for rent, let alone food. Just because Hakka was considered an adult in the eyes of the village, didn't mean she really was one. The certainty she felt earlier was shakier than ever.

Ten year olds shouldn't be forced to choose between having a bed and food to eat.

She didn't know what possessed her, but suddenly her lips were moving and she was babbling out, "Would you like to live with me while you search for a new apartment?"

The girl said nothing, just stared back at her.

"Because, you know-ttebane," Kushina went on, starting to feel a little less confident, "Minato's got a chibi of his own, and I'm a little jealous. I'm really bad at looking after myself, but I promise that while you live with me I'll do a better job looking after you than I do myself. So what do you say?"

Those dull green eyes of hers locked onto Kushina's own azure. For a moment, she caught a flash of vulnerability, of fear and hope, before it flickered away and the girl simply nodded.

"You're sure?"

A nod.

"Really, positively?"

The nod seemed less sure, but it was still a nod.

Something in her stomach squeezed. Maybe it was nerves, finally deciding to give out on her. Maybe it was indigestion from the fifteen plus bowls of ramen she'd just been eating, building up to this moment. Either way, she was pretty sure she was about as dumb as Minato for going along with this.

But she could do this. She could afford take out for two. And if the girl needed things, she could totally buy things. And whenever the girl started puberty…

Well, that was what Mikoto-chan was for.

**IX.**

"Uchiha-san."

Obito jolted. How had she seen-?

"Your hair's poking out."

"Wha-!" he exclaimed, jumping out of the bush he'd been watching the girl from.

Hakka treated him to a flat stare. Obito chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. Anxiously, he waited for her to start interrogating him about exactly why he had been spying on her. He didn't know if he should've felt a little let down when she simply went back to doing what she had been before she'd called him out. Wasn't she curious at all?

Had he just imagined her shaking her head? His eyes went wide like saucers. Was she reading his mind?

As if to finally take pity on him, she voiced the long awaited question, "Why are you here, Uchiha-san?"

"Ah, haha, yeah, I'm here cause…"

Admitting you were spying on someone because you were lonely was kind of pathetic. Minato-sensei was off on some big, super-secret mission with the teme, leaving him behind in the village with Hakka-chan. He would've tracked down Rin-chan to hang out first, if he didn't already know she was busy on a mission to deliver medical supplies with her own team. And he might've stuck around the Uchiha compound if he could hang out at Mikoto-ba-sama's with his favorite little cousins, but based on the lecture Fugaku-ji-sama had given him, the clan head didn't want Mikoto-ba-sama bothered so soon after she had given birth.

That really left him with only Hakka.

Which as an option was… meh.

Maybe initially, he hadn't much liked his distant, and somewhat creepy, teammate. For a long time, her blunt and critical comments about his performance made him wonder if she was conspiring with the teme to make him feel lower than dirt. His first month on Team Minato had been miserable to say the least. But while Hakka-chan could've said things a million times nicer like Rin-chan always did, she never said anything to be mean like Kakashi-teme. And it took a little while longer to realize that she was just as critical of their other teammate as well. Even Minato-sensei from time to time.

Recently, she'd even started saying some nice things about how he was improving at stuff. It wasn't enough to convince him that she was any less weird, but he did like it that someone besides Minato-sensei was acknowledging his growth. He didn't really have a lot of people who did that for him.

It was that thought that finally convinced him that maybe hanging out with (read: spying on) Hakka-chan wouldn't be that bad.

Now, here he was, out on the outskirts of Konoha, standing in what looked like a weird garden with her. He was pretty sure this was the teme's fault somehow.

Just as he was about to take a step over to her, she quickly threw up her hands in a sign that screamed stop.

"Don't come any closer," she warned.

"Why?" he asked, bewildered.

"Some of these plants are poisonous," she explained. The confusion on his face must've been obvious because she continued by saying, "Poisonous enough to naturally give off deadly gas."

"WHAT?" he exclaimed, zipping backwards and holding his arms out in front of him, "How are you even-? Why would you need-? Where did you-?"

"I have built up an immunity from handling them so much," she answered him even though he hadn't fully asked, "These plants are how I make the compounds that coat my senbon. I..." she paused, "found most of these plants at Training Ground 44 and on Nara property."

Mentally, Obito made a promise to himself to never visit Training Ground 44 or the Nara Compound if he could help it.

When his thoughts cleared, he found her staring at him expectantly.

"What?"

"Why are you here Uchiha-san?"

"Oh, uh right. I'm here 'cause-" before he put his foot in his mouth by admitting that he was a loser who was desperate for companionship and she was his last resort for hanging out, he was cut off by a long, loud growl.

From his stomach.

He didn't know whether to pale or flush. His face was similarly confused.

"Would you like to go eat?" Hakka suddenly asked, surprising him out of his embarrassment.

Just as he opened his mouth to respond, and maybe find a way to regain his dignity, his stomach growled again.

Walking past him, she paused for a moment to catch his eye, before beckoning him with a tilt of the head.

"Come."

So he followed.

**X.**

He blinked.

It wasn't strange to be greeted at the gated when he and Minato-sensei returned from a mission. If she was in the village and not out on a mission of her own, she would try to be out there waiting to greet them. He would wait until the woman was too busy with sensei to make his escape. She always wanted to… hug him, after she was done with the other man. Or ruffle his hair, or poke at him to show his injuries, or any other number of annoying and demeaning things. He was a chunin of Konoha. He didn't need bothersome people trying to take care of him. Why couldn't she be more like Minato-sensei, who knew when to back off?

As they had approached the gates, both he and sensei had seen her bright red hair from miles away. He'd begun mentally running through his usual escape strategies when, after they'd gotten closer, he realized that the woman wasn't alone. On either side of her stood one of his teammates. He had cursed. It would be more difficult to just slip off if one of them tried to engage him. Although, knowing his teammates (which he didn't, but he at least felt like he had a good measure of them), they probably wouldn't want to talk to him anyway.

The dobe hated him and his other teammate wasn't one to start conversation, ever. He could get away.

His plans, however, fell away when he and sensei were close enough, and he saw what his teammates and sensei's girl friend were holding. It was a- what the hell was it even?

It looked like some kind of banner. "Welcome Home" was painted on it, in eye-gouging orange and surrounded by red swirls. Getting closer allowed him to pick up on the terrible penmanship of the words. Closer still and he noticed something else strange.

Illustrations. Surprisingly good looking ones at every corner. Obviously not made by whoever had written the words (and he strongly suspected that had been the dobe). One was a toad wreathed in flames, another a dog with a henohenomoheji face, the next an orange and black uchiwa, and the last a plant he didn't recognize with long stretching roots. Altogether, the entire thing was an eyesore.

Sensei seemed to disagree with him, if the wide grin on his face and his shout of joy was any indication.

The man spent a good half a minute admiring it before he darted around and pulled Kushina into an embrace. A moment later, and the adults had grabbed one of his teammates each and pulled them into the hug, the banner getting crushed between them. The moron was as enthusiastic about it as the girl was apathetic. For a second, he felt a grain of sympathy for his female teammate, especially considering the fact that the red-haired banshee his sensei called a girlfriend practically had her in a headlock.

Normally, he would've taken advantage of their preoccupation to flee.

However, for some reason, the scene gave him pause.

He didn't know why, but when he looked at the four of them, the first thing that came to mind was

_family._

They looked like a family.

He didn't even know what family was. He had no mother. No siblings. There had been To- that man. And now he lived with Minato-sensei. But the way Minato and Kushina held each other like husband and wife, how they held the boy and the girl like they were their children, it looked so right and wrong.

And he didn't know why.

They were only feet away from him and he felt so far away.

So caught up in his thoughts, Kakashi didn't notice until it was too late to even kawarimi away that sensei and Kushina had reached out together to enfold him into their hug. He struggled, putting an elbow in someone's midsection and smacking someone else in the face. It wasn't long before he realized he was just wasting his energy. He just needed to bide time until he could disappear. Even if that meant putting up with the moron complaining loudly in one ear about being "Too close to the teme!" Or putting up with the girl's chin being hooked over his shoulder, her breaths puffing across the back of his neck.

He suppressed a shiver. Only to jump when he heard her whisper something.

"Are you well Hatake-san?"

The question was so unexpected, he was answering in the affirmative before he could cut it off with a grunt.

"Ah. That's good."

He tensed as he felt a hand rest upon his shoulder blade.

"Welcome back."

In quiet panic, he managed to finally get his hands together and kawarimi a safe distance away. He found himself on the receiving end of pouts and chortles. Kakashi avoided looking at her entirely. Quickly, he muttered something about turning his and sensei's mission report into the Administration Building. Sensei called after him, but he didn't hear it.

As he leapt from rooftop to rooftop, unbidden, his mind wandered back to the banner, and an odd thought occurred to him, _How did they know I had dog_ _summons?_

* * *

**AN: **A little late on Monday to be posting this. Sorry everyone! Hope this came out alright. I actually rewrote the Kushina scene. Hopefully my re-write is good. Happy Monday and Bastille Day!


	4. Chapter 4

**XI.**

In the beginning, Sensei, Kushina, even Hokage-sama, had warned him about becoming too focused on one student. He had a team of three students, he should treat them equally. And in his mind, he'd convinced himself that he was doing that by giving all of them the same training and paying the same amount of attention on missions. But that wasn't really the same as treating them equally, was it?

Because at the end of the day, Kakashi-kun was his apprentice and would be the one he went home with, where they would have meals and occasional conversations together. And it was constantly at the forefront of his mind to help Kakashi, fix Kakashi, save Kakashi from the past that continued to haunt him.

It had been easy to forget that his other students had demons in their past, too.

Obito-kun had been the easiest to figure out, and the easiest to dismiss. An orphan as well, maybe the only thing he had in common with both of his teammates. But he had an entire clan to support him, and while the situation didn't seem to be the happiest for the boy, he was better off than Kakashi-kun or Hakka-chan. He got along with other people in his age group, making friends and finding ways to keep himself content. Minato had been least worried about him, but considering how wrong he'd been about his last student, he thought maybe he was wrong about the boy, too.

Hakka-chan, at first glance, seemed to have many of the common traits of an unclaimed orphan. From birth, she had nothing, not even a surname to claim as her own. Overlooked and shuffled around due to the surge of refugees arriving in Konoha after the end of the war, there was a resulting lack of paperwork detailing her early life. She had had enough documentation to receive the support of the orphan's stipend, which afforded her a crap apartment in the poorest district of Konoha. Some other classic traits of orphans, she had grown painfully closed off and fiercely independent. Unfortunately, like many orphans who became ninja to improve their lot in life, hit a wall when their stipend was yanked away and they were left with a measly, inconsistent income based on genin missions.

All of that was what Minato had assumed had driven his student to start frequenting the red light district. He'd been so sick with the thought that he had failed her so badly, he'd begun trying to do everything he could to change her situation. Subtly of course. Years of dealing with Kakashi-kun taught him that he couldn't confront the problem straight on. He had to do it more… sideways.

Getting her out of that apartment and somewhere safer and more affordable seemed like the solution.

As it turned out, it wasn't.

Even though she was living with Kushina, even though she was eating properly, even though she making enough money on missions to save or spend however she wanted, she was still, she was still-

It was only then, that he realized that there might be something more behind it. She could be in debt. She could be in more trouble than he could have fathomed.

He had more work to do.

**XII.**

So it had become a thing.

During down time, if Rin-chan was unavailable and he was once again strongly discouraged from hanging around with Shisui-kun and Itachi-kun, he would go hunt down Hakka-chan. At the earliest and latest hours of the day he couldn't find her no matter what he tried, but other than those times, she was pretty predictable. In the morning she would be meditating at Kushina-san's, at midday she would be at that really popular tea place that he was sure was her favorite, and in the late afternoon she would be tending her deathtrap of a garden.

For some reason, he liked spending time with her when she was gardening best.

It wasn't like he cared much for gardening. Frankly, those plants creeped him out (especially the one that had eaten a squirrel, a SQUIRREL). But Hakka-chan always seemed most - what was the word he was looking for? - open, the most open when she gardened. Until he'd discovered that, it had never occurred to him that his female teammate could be open. Like, he'd been sure both she and the teme were actually robots or something, and teme got programmed with the jerk personality while no one had even bothered to give Hakka-chan one.

Except she did have one. A personality. It was just reallyyyyy hard to find.

He was pleased to note that she was actually a very kind, if strange, person… at least, to say, she was kind to plants. She really loved her plants, so much that she had named each of them, talked to them, cared very meticulously for them. Being around them seemed to make her relax, make her almost friendly.

There had been one day when he had been really bored that he'd asked her to tell him what each plant was. She'd done so, and it had gotten boring again once she got done with the plants that ate rodents or spat acid. He'd noticed a set of plants sitting in pots away from the rest of the lot and had questioned her about what they were and why they were kept separate.

She told him all of it was some kind of mint, and that she kept them separate because mint had these root things called runners that went all over the place. If they were planted with everything else, the runners would choke off and kill all the other stuff in garden. When he asked her why she planted it then - _like, is it poisonous or helpful or something like that? _\- she'd stopped what she was doing, blinked, and then told him.

"It… smells nice and tastes good."

It was the most impractical thing he'd ever heard her say.

He'd grinned at her then, and said, "I guess you must really like it, huh?"

Even though she had shrugged at him in response and gone back to doing what she'd been doing, he noticed her smile a small smile. And usually, she smiled so they could be seen in all their fake and eerie wonder. This time, she kept her head down, her face mostly hidden away in the leaves, but she was smiling. He could see it.

It was the first time he had ever seen her smile and knew she meant it.

Anyone who could smile like that, he was sure, wasn't a robot.

**XIII.**

Kakashi tried to fight it. Tried to will his body not to react. But as much as he fought, he could not stop it.

His eye twitched.

He just didn't understand it. How had she done it? How had she done what many had tried and failed to do?

As if to further irk him, the thing sitting contently in her lap started to purr.

Today, as a way to strike up "friendly competition" between the three of them, Minato-sensei had proposed a mission challenge. The first one to complete it would get to choose the restaurant they would eat at once they had finished. It wasn't like Kakashi cared where they were going to eat, food was just food. But his teammates seemed to be getting a bit cocky in their spars with him lately, so he needed to win this to remind them that they were still leagues behind him in skill.

Except, that hadn't exactly gone to plan.

Of all of the missions to pick for them, it had to be the mission to return Sora the (demon) cat back to its owner, the fiancee of the Fire Daimyo. It was a mission that tended to go back and forth between being a D and C rank mission, depending on the mood of the target that given day. Typically, the mission was given as a punishment or a tracking exercise. Hunting the creature down was a momentously difficult task. It was lightning fast, devilishly clever, and impervious to most genjutsu if one could even accomplish casting a genjutsu on it.

Having taken the mission once or twice in the past, he was sure he had an edge on the other two who had not been treated to this particular mission yet. Especially now that he had more skill in tracking and his summons were beginning to get the hang of doing it as well. He and Pakkun had been on the damn thing's trail for almost twenty minutes. Just when he thought he'd had it cornered, he'd found it like this.

Another purr rolled out of the creature that had, without fuss, crawled its way into his female teammate's lap. It was currently nuzzling further into her and licking at her arm.

As if to add insult to injury, the thing hissed at him and Pakkun before lying back and allowing the dobe, who had been sitting next to the girl, to pet it.

"Mission done?" Pakkun asked in halting yips and growls.

"Hai," he forced, reminding himself to not take out his irritation on Pakkun.

He had to turn away from the scene, especially when the two started giggling (the dobe) and whispering (the girl) things about "cat" and "mints" and "gardens" like they had a secret.

"Team 7," he bit out, and heard the slightest shift of the ones behind him standing, "Let's report to the mission completed."

"You're probably going to want to go to Kannou's, huh?" Kakashi heard the idiot comment as they began to move.

"Why?"

"Because you won, duh."

"I suppose I did." A long silence drew out. "It doesn't matter to me where we go."

"Oh come on, you won, it's your call."

"Really Uchiha-san, it's fine. I'll leave it up to Minato-sensei."

"Obito, Hakka-chan. You'd think I'd never told you my name before. It's _O-_bi-_to. _Got it memorized?"

There was another long silence.

"Hakkaaaaaa-chaaaaaan."

Silence.

"Hakkaa-"

"For the love of-" Kakashi finally ground out, turning to face his annoying and flaccid teammates, "Uchiha, urusei. She'll never call you," _or me,_ "by anything but your surname."

He shot a glare at the girl and the cat in her arms.

"Now hurry up. We need to return that thing, collect our pay, and get on with whatever place you'll be subjecting us to."

She opened her mouth to say something, but he ignored in and started briskly walking in the direction of the Administration Building. Pakkun was there close at his heels, and not a moment later, the other two fell in behind him once more.

* * *

AN: Apologies dear readers. This chapter is late. I will endeavor to make sure the next one is posted on the usual expected day of Monday.

Kakashi, what are you even doing with your life? Well, I do have to say though, the Obito parts are consistently my favorites (which is _weird _because I have never like his character). This chapter also features Detective Mother Hen Minato. Also, I actually need to read everything Kakashi Gaiden related, because there is a lot more stuff there now since I last checked.


	5. Chapter 5

**XIV.**

"Again," the man sitting in the chair ordered.

The child, her arm hanging broken and useless at her side, struggled to push herself to her feet to face him. Judging by the way she placed slightly more weight on her back leg than average as she took her ready stance, her front leg was likely injured as well. If this were really training with one of his students, he may have stopped here. Or at least stopped to explain to her the purpose of this as an exercise. But she was not his student, and the purpose of this farce of a training session was known to all parties present. They all just took care to not acknowledge it for what it was truly was.

"Operative Hakka." The girl stiffened in acknowledgement but did not look away from her opponent. Good, but even the distraction was enough for him to move in for a strike. "It has been reported that you are no longer living at the apartment that was assigned to you. Why is that?"

"My apartment was flooded. I was forced relocate."

"I also note that you are now living with Jounin Uzumaki Kushina. How did that come about?"

There was a hitch between the girl's block and counterattack, the man facing her noticed.

"Jounin Namikaze Minato set up the arrangement. She is his significant other."

"That is very advantageous to your mission. Was this arrangement planned?"

"Ie, Danzou-sama," the operative answered as she barely dodged a foot to the gut.

"Hmm." The man facing her could admit he found that sound incredibly irritating, and he had been on a team with two of the most irritating, loud people on this earth. "I suppose that I am fine with you keeping this arrangement for as long as it is available to you."

"Hai."

"However," the old war hawk started, and as he did so, made a hand signal at the other man.

Moving faster than the girl could react, the man slammed a fist into the side of her face that sent her flying through the air and crashing into a wall. If he had put anymore force into that blow, he would've killed her. As it was, she assuredly had serious bruising on her back and possibly a dislocated jaw.

"However," Danzou repeated, "You have failed to avoid attracting the suspicion of Jounin Namikaze Minato. He is asking questions of your origins, and digging into your records. He won't find anything to lead back to us, but if he is not turned back from this path, he may soon involve his teacher and even the hokage himself. They will be the ones who do find something."

The old ninja stood and crossed the room to stand before her.

"You will devise a way to divert his attentions."

The other operative's guess about the dislocated jaw were confirmed when instead of answering verbally, the girl simply bowed in lieu of it.

"Operative Hakka, you will report to Operative Nonou to be healed and then you will return to Jounin Uzumaki Kushina's home." He turned. "Operative Hebi, you are dismissed."

The operative nodded and turned to leave.

Danzou was a fool.

He thought himself so clever, the puppet master did, bending men, women, and children to his will. Bend them too much, and his pretty toys broke. Yet he didn't seem to understand that as he used and misused his puppets again and again. Beat what made them someone out of them, and there would be nothing left. Not even the fear of death. And once that was gone, only death could await them.

Operative Hakka… such a shame. He remembered her smaller, and so full of rage, and hate, and fear, and hope. So unpredictable and delightful. What he could have done with her if he had gotten to her first.

Such a shame.

**XV.**

"Um."

Glancing furtively at her companion, she found her gaze unwavering and off putting still.

Why exactly had she agreed to this?

Oh, that's right. Because she thought Obito-kun's teammate would actually be someone normal.

Not long ago, she'd noted a change in the conversations she had with her longtime friend. Before, he'd often come to her and spend much of their time together complaining about his teammates. It appeared that one of his teammates, previously assumed to be strange and rude, was responsible for his shift in topics. Now she was often treated to days where Obito-kun would only spend a small fraction of his time griping about "Bakashi," what he'd recently taken to calling the other boy. Much of the rest of the time was spent talking about whatever he had done recently with the mysterious "Hakka-chan."

All of it had made her curious about actually meeting the other girl. It would be beyond wonderful to be acquainted with another female kunoichi. With her entire family, her best friend, her entire team being all male, she had been wondering if her life was doomed to be a testosterone wasteland. So she had asked said best friend to arrange a meeting between the two of them, at a cafe that he claimed his teammate favored.

Of course, now Rin was wondering how she hadn't seen this coming. Anyone who hung out with Obito had to be strange like him or stranger. She was still wondering if she should run now to avoid acknowledging the girl's comment.

"You know he has romantic feelings towards you, Nohara-san."

"I-"

"You pretend you don't know."

Blushing furiously, the girl looked down, wishing she could make the other girl stop talking.

"You are trying to avoid hurting his feelings." There was a long pause. "And you seem to have a history with my other teammate."

"How did you-?" Rin nearly squeaked, "No one is supposed to know about that!"

"Guess," Hakka-san answered blandly, before raising her cup of tea to her lips to blow, sending warm, sweet-smelling gusts of steam across the table.

Rin goggled at her, very much doubting that there had been any guessing involved where this girl was concerned.

"Why would you even bring any of that up?"

"The wellbeing of my teammates is important. You have the potential to cause harm to them."

"I would never hurt either of them!" Rin protested.

"Maybe not intentionally. But the more someone matters to another person, the more harm they can cause them with even the simplest of words or actions. I want you to be very careful with the way you treat my teammates, because at least to one of them, you are a very precious person."

Rin wondered if she should be angry at this girl. What right did she have to lecture her about how she treated her friends? Still.

"Is this your way of telling me I better not break your teammates' hearts or else?" she finally asked somewhat jokingly, deciding against anger.

This seemed like something out of those shoujo mangas that her civilian cousin liked to read.

"If that is how you would like to take it."

That pulled a chuckle out of Rin.

"Do you always have these kinds of talks with people you meet for the first time?"

"No."

"Really?" the medic-nin in training frowned, "What makes me so special then?"

"You're special to Uchiha-san. Anyone special to my teammates is special to me."

"Somehow, I feel like that's a big admission coming from you." Rin pulled her own cup of tea close so she could wrap her hands around it and let the heat seep into them. "You really care about those two, don't you?"

Instead of answering, Hakka-san took another sip. Rin smiled knowingly. Obito-kun's teammate was strange indeed, so abrupt and blunt, but she obviously cared a lot about her teammates.

It was a relief to know that Obito-kun had someone else besides her watching out for him. Even as friendly as he was, he seemed to have trouble really making friends with anyone else like she had with their other age mates at the Academy. Not many people knew what to do with an Uchiha who was actually nice. She had worried that, when they had been put on different teams, things would only be more difficult for him.

As for Kakashi-kun, she worried in the same way. No one knew, but she had known the reserved boy for years. Before the Hatake clan fell from grace, the Nohara clan had been one of the minor clans in their service. They had played together when they were very young because they were the same age, but after his father's failed mission, the Nohara clan had abandoned the Hatake. Rin hadn't seen Kakashi-kun again until the Academy, and by then very much changed and not all of them good. She had wished for a time to be on a team with him if only just to look after him. And it seemed Hakka-san was just as willing to look after him as she was Obito-kun.

"I think I like you Hakka-san," Rin told the other girl as she poured herself another cup of tea.

"I am still undecided on you, Nohara-san."

Rin smiled a little wider.

"I think I can live with that."

**XVI.**

His teammates might chastise him from time to time about always joking around, but even they appreciated being able laugh in the midst of battle when things should've been serious. After all, his team would at some point be facing off against the Kiiroi Senko's students in their exams, one of which was already a chuunin (and how was that even fair?). He knew he ought to keep up his team's spirits as best as possible.

Although it seemed unnecessary in Gai's case, since he already seemed pumped up beyond belief to be fighting the Hatake kid. He'd been so quick in his excitement to get at him and steal away their scroll that he'd knee'd the Uchiha in the face in his haste.

That was where they were now, with the Uchiha flat on his back knocked out, his teammate standing guard over him. Gai and the Hatake were trading blows almost too fast to track.

And him and Ebisu?

Standing side by side, trying to not to crack up and take their attention off of their opponents. He was sure that their proctor was shaking their head at the six of them. That thought just had him working even harder not to laugh.

If he and his teammate hadn't held off laughing, they probably would've been mowed down by the girl and the previously unconscious Uchiha who suddenly rushed them. Unexpectedly, the girl came after him while the Uchiha went after Ebisu. For some reason, he would've had her pegged as the type to go after his other teammate, who looked physically weaker in comparison to him and Gai. Then again, maybe he was underestimating her because she was a girl, assuming she'd go after the easier fight as the weakest of her own team. For all he knew, she might be the tougher of the two.

His suspicions were confirmed the moment he went to take another leap away to put distance between them, and his legs immediately gave beneath him.

In half a second, his hands were together performing the seals for shunshin. The other half second later, he was on his ass a few meters away watching as the patch of forest floor he would've fallen upon was turned into a pincushion of senbon.

"Ah, I missed."

The girl was now standing there next to her patch of senbon, shooting him a curious look.

Before she could do anything else, he quickly took a breath and spat the senbon in his mouth at her and prepared to shunshin away. Even as he landed ungracefully in his new spot, he found that he had not lost her at all. There she was standing right before him on the tree branch he'd hoped to hide on.

And she had his senbon.

It was in her mouth.

No, correction, it was in her teeth.

His eyes went wide in awe.

She had caught his senbon. _With her teeth._

Fumbling with his hands to form the seals for shunshin again, he found himself interrupted when the girl grabbed one of his hands with a surprisingly tight grip, pressed the back flat against the bark of the tree and then-

-drove a kunai through the palm of his hand.

So pained and shocked at the brutality, he didn't even notice she repeated the same treatment with his other hand. Both hands stung like a bitch for all of five seconds before going blissfully numb, much like his legs. He turned his head to look at each of his impaled and sluggishly bleeding hands, and then to look straight at her, his senbon drooping lazily from the corner of her mouth like it belonged there.

_Indirect kiss,_ he thought, staring really hard at her mouth before leaning his head back against the tree and busting out laughing.

He may have imagined her lips twitching, but he was so sure they did. She reached into his coat - he wondered vaguely if she would try to cop a feel - and pulled the scroll out from where he had stashed it. After another beat, she reached for his side and took his senbon holder, too.

"Gratefully accepted," she informed him as she held her prizes up for him to see.

Still unable to figure out exactly why his interactions with the girl were so amusing as opposed to humiliating, he tipped his chin up as if to tell her, _You're very welcome. _In response, she put her goodies away and then pulled a bottle of a milky liquid out of her own pouch. He watched curiously as she tucked it into the pocket where the scroll had been.

"What's that for?"

"Antidote," she answered, standing and backing away from him.

"Hey," he said, noticing she was preparing to go, "My name is Shiranui Genma. What's yours Senbon-chan?"

And this time, he was sure she smiled, because even though her back was turned he could see the senbon in her mouth tick upwards just over her shoulder. He never got his answer from her, because she'd already leapt down from the tree to report the scroll claimed.

"Well damn," he huffed.

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be terrified or in love with her.

.

Only after he'd been rescued by his teammates and his hands healed, and his team went on to either watch or participate in the elimination rounds of the third part of the exam, was he able to learn her name was Hakka. Genma got to see it on the scoreboard quite a few times as he watched her knock out a couple more opponents before Gai finally took her out with an instant KO punch. After that match, Gai had come up to him, his face pinched in a perplexed expression that emphasized his eyebrows.

"Was that your most Youthful senbon in her mouth?"

Next to Genma, Ebisu choked.

Genma laughed and laughed.

XVII.

Wet, so wet and dirty and despicably cold. Such a disgusting place for her mistress to send her.

Keeping below the surface, she tunneled along underground as she followed the white masks. She went over her mistress's commands as she traveled, remembering to stay out of sight until the battle had commenced to do what she was sent to do and then deliver a message. Her mistress had also stressed how important it was to stay alert and evade any jutsus thrown her way.

When the time was right, she burst out of the ground unnoticed to coil herself around the torso of the orange furred ape, hidden away in his clothing. She felt cold steel cut into her body as well as the ape's, but it was not fatal for either of them. Still, a part was meant to be played as mistress said, so she plunged her fangs into the ape and let him carry them both to the ground, cold and still as death.

Safe where she was, she listened to the sound of explosions, and yelling, and weeping. When the fighting sounds died away and she sensed only two strong and one weak ape chakra, she revealed herself to them.

"_This one has not yet passed," _she hissed to the ones who could hear her, drawing a gasp from the female ape.

"Get away from him."

The red furred ape's eyes gave her a moment's pause, before she ignored his words and went on, _"I have saved this one's life. Do not tell me if I can or cannot rest upon him."_

"You keep saying you've saved him, but how can that be? I can no longer sense his chakra. He is… dead."

If she were more immature, she would've snorted.

"_Then your sensing ability is no good. Life chakra still burns in this one. I feel the warmth of it even in my scales. He lives."_

Moving more slowly due to his wounds, his breath laboring, he lowered himself by the fallen orange ape and pressed his hands to his chest. His eyes went wide with realization.

"You're right."

"He's alive?" the female ape asked, desperation in her voice.

Silent tears began to spill anew down the cheeks of the blue female when the red ape nodded in confirmation.

"Why have you done this?"

"_For my mistress, who begs a favor in return."_

The red ape's eyes narrowed.

"Who is your mistress? Why must we owe her anything?"

"_My mistress must not reveal herself. However, she claims that she has changed your fate from one of pain and death. In return, you who is to be savior, must heed her words if you hope to bring peace the world."_

Though those words seemed to strike a chord with him, the ape still seemed wary.

"Why should we trust the words of a woman who hides herself away and sends serpents to treat with us on her behalf?" the blue ape demanded for him, "We have only just now barely survived a deception that could have ended us all."

"_She does not expect you to trust her,"_ the creature intoned, _"She simply asks you to listen."_

After a moment of tense silence where the apes look to one another, the red ape finally nodded.

"We'll listen."

_"Then listen well, oh savior."_

* * *

**AN:** I am so sorry that this is late my readers. Something terrible happened to me: I finally read the last 100 chapters of the Naruto manga that are currently out. Lemme tell you, that was a mistake. Now, quite a bit of what I've written has gone to shit thanks to canon whiny Uchihas, creepy plant-men, and bunny goddesses. I thought the timeline discrepancies were bad, but this takes the cake.

I'm going to have **_so much fun_** rewriting certain parts of this so that it aligns with canon, because even though hate canon, I will respect it enough to try and make an effort to subvert it correctly. Story's probably going to be longer because of that. (grumbles)

Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. And if you're up to date on Naruto, I invite you to PM me to talk about it, because I still trying to figure out what is going on.


	6. Chapter 6

**XVIII.**

He was sitting sipping a cup of sake when the memories hit.

It was a little odd that they were coming back so early. He shrugged after a moment. His clone had probably met its end at the hands of a lovely lady who had caught him out. Like usual, it took him a moment to sort through the incoming barrage. At first, he'd been hoping that his kagebunshin had at least provided him with some juicy research material. And of course, that's how it had started. There had been a couple of shapely goddesses his clone had taken interest in, until it had realized that someone was trying to cast a genjutsu on it.

That was where things in the memories got strange.

.

_The kagebunshin quickly manipulated its small chakra to allow the invasive foreign chakra to latch on, making it appear as if the genjutsu had successfully ensnared the real him instead of a clone. _(1) _Things then became a waiting game, to see when the caster would make their move. It didn't take long. He sensed movement behind him and forcefully quelled movements that would give away his anticipation. The caster was there at his shoulder, their arm pushing away his haori and reaching into the pocket of his hakama._

_Moving in a flash, one of his hands clamped down on the caster's wrist while the other gripped their throat and swung them around so they were pressed against the wall of the bathhouse. To his surprise, the identity of his supposed assailant was already known to him. Hoping he hid his recognition well, he eased his grip on the girl and let an arrogant grin curl his lips._

"_Pretty brave of you tadpole-chan, to think you could mess with someone like me."_

_She didn't dignify his comment with a response, instead staring back unimpressed, and reminding him too much of both Tsunade-hime and Orochi-teme with one look to be natural._

"_Ha! Do you even know who I am?"_

_More staring and silence._

"_Oh come on!" he pouted, "You must know who I am?"_

_Of course, he wasn't deluded for a second in believing that she didn't. It was all part of the act, letting them think you're a fool and a pervert. That got them talking, thinking that they needed to explain everything to you because you were too damn clueless to understand their genius. Of course, that wasn't working out too well for him now. He checked off that tactic on his list and moved onto the next, retightening the fingers he had around her neck just a tad._

(If he bruised her too badly and this encounter got back to her teacher, there would be hell to pay.)

"_Whether you know who I am or not, using a jutsu on and attempting to steal from a fellow shinobi is a punishable offence," he informed her, his voice hard, "Maybe I should turn you over to the Military Police. Unless you convince me not to?"_

_Still no reaction. _Damn this one's cold, _he thought to himself and he frowned internally. Indulging his curiosity, he pulled the hand holding whatever it was she had been trying to take from him up so he could see what she'd been interested in. It was interesting to see that it was nothing that had already been in his pocket before this had happened. Just an innocuous scrap of paper._

_He eyed her. Had she been trying to leave that in his pocket?_

_Moving the hand on her neck down to her shoulder, he used the other to take the paper and look it over. No seals. No writing either. Maybe invisible ink. There was a drawing on it however, once he unfolded it. At first he wasn't sure what it was, but as he looked at it longer, it seemed to be a tree. Except, not like any tree he'd seen. It seemed as if there were two, growing out of each other. One tree inked in bold, thick strokes. The other looked like a shadow, an imprint. Like the first tree had been drawn with too much ink and when the paper was folded over, the blank side had leeched the excess to create a faded mirror image._

"_Is this supposed to mean something?" he asked, figuring it was worth trying the direct approach of figuring it out._

_As expected, she gave him a nod and nothing more._

"_Give me a hint?"_

"_That is your hint," the girl said, speaking for the first time since this confrontation began, "Can you help me?"_

"_And why should I do anything with this? With you?" he asked, waving the paper carelessly in her face. "Can't you give me anything else?"_

"_I cannot." _

_He was ready for her to give him a string of arguments to justify her silence. He wasn't ready for her to open her mouth wide and stick her tongue out. The minute he saw the seal on her tongue, it felt like fireworks shooting off in his synapses, connecting dots to dots to dots. And where the realizations ended left him cold, and furious, and still several steps away from having all the information._

_But that was okay. He wasn't a spymaster for no reason._

"_I suppose I'll be helping you then, tadpole-chan."_

_Another first, he got a smile once her mouth clicked closed. He would've rather he never saw it, though. He hated those kinds of smiles._

(The grey haired man set down a picture frame containing a smiling man, woman, and baby, then took another long pull from the sake bottle. Hopelessness lingered at the upturned corners of his lips.

"I fail everyone.")

"_I am glad to have your aid, Jiraiya-sama." Her eyes shifted to gaze just past his shoulder, seeming faraway. "Until we meet next time."_

_And then the girl exploded into smoke._

_Jiraiya huffed, holding back a sneeze. Kagebunshin? Not completely unexpected, just a little annoying. With a quick fire jutsu to burn the paper, the kagebunshin dismissed itself as well._

_._

Taking another sip of sake, Jiraiya stole a glance over the rim at his student, who as usual at their occasional "family dinners" was being disgustingly adorable with his girlfriend and irritating his own student with the PDA. It was a comforting scene to come back to. It also answered why he was so willing to stick his neck out for a girl who was virtually a stranger. Things were always more complicated when you cared about people. Orochimaru was right about him. His heart bled, and bled, and he wondered if he would be left dry in the end.

"Ero-sensei!" a voice called, snapping him out of his thoughts. He saw Kushina-chan giving him a rather stern look, "Don't hog all the sake!"

"Maa, maa Kushina-chan, don't worry, there's plenty for you, too."

**XIX.**

Why exactly was he here again?

A sideways peek at Minato-sensei and Kushina-san reminded him. Those terrible smiles, promising something painful, humiliating, and worst of all: cuddly. Since the moment he'd arrived, he'd made a tactical retreat to the least crowded corner of Kushina-san's apartment next to her houseplant.

Exactly who thought it would be a good idea to invite him to his teammates' birthday party? Didn't he make it clear on a regular basis that he didn't care a bit about them as long as they didn't get in his or sensei's way?

"Useless," he muttered.

Something niggled at him, at the words, at the thoughts.

And he did have to admit, useless wasn't completely true. They really weren't the most useless teammates ever. He'd grudgingly been impressed that for entering the chunin exams as first time rookies, they'd actually both managed to pass. Well, he'd been more surprised about the dobe making it. There were days he wondered how the boy had even made it out of the Academy with his gaps in knowledge, inability to keep his emotions in check, and his tardiness. He could care less if the boy was telling the truth about what held him up so much, he made them waste all of their time they could be spending on missions or training waiting on him. It had been a surprise that he had only been five minutes late the day of the test, and actually managed to defeat his opponents during the one-on-one's.

As for the girl, he actually had expected her to pass.

If there was one compliment he had for his female teammate, she seemed to embody what a true shinobi was. No emotion, adequate skills, professional attitude towards missions, kept to herself, and she even came with the added ability of curbing some of the dobe's bad habits. (And she wasn't one of his insufferable fangirls either.) If he were feeling even more generous, he would even admit she was the perfect teammate and therefore the perfect counterbalance to their other team member.

Still, as not-useless and tolerable as his teammates were slowly becoming, that didn't mean he actually wanted to celebrate the fact they had been born. They both apparently had birthdays within days of each other, and the girl had been strong armed into having a joint birthday with the dobe. One thing Kakashi had to be thankful for was that it was only one birthday and not two. He was sure he would've been forced to attend both.

Sighing, he scanned the room. Sensei and his girlfriend were talking to the Uchiha clan head's wife. His male teammate seemed like he was telling some animated tale to the Nohara girl and his little brat cousin, both of whom he had invited. Another look and he realized that his other teammate was nowhere to be found.

_She escaped! _he thought with no small amount of envy.

Soon, he corrected himself, because he could still sense her somewhere in the apartment. As inconspicuously as he could, he slipped out of his corner and down the hall to investigate where she had gone. As it anticlimactically turned out, she was just in what seemed to be her room. He nodded to himself in approval at the almost Spartan set up of her room, forgiving the little things that gave away that this room belonged to her. Like, for example, the larger than standard shelves of books and scrolls, or the potted plants that lined her window, or startling number of fully stocked senbon cases covering half of her desk.

His eyes were eventually drawn to her, sitting on her bed, reading a scroll on pressure points.

He almost jumped when he saw her staring back at him, having caught him standing at her open door watching her. Glad his face mask would hide most of his shock, he quickly quirked an eyebrow at her and her book to turn the situation back around on her.

In response, she stood, went to her bookcase, and grabbed a book.

"If you would like to join me, Hatake-san," she said, and then held out the book.

Call it temporary insanity, or anything else that meant that he wasn't of right mind or in control of himself at the time, but he took one step forward and then another. Finally, he was standing in front of her and the book's cover was facing up at him. Maybe he might've left to return to his corner then once he'd satisfied his curiosity about what she'd thought could interest him out of her library. But the title read Manipulating Elemental Chakra, and the table of contents said there were chapters on how to channel elemental chakra into weapons and use it to create a new technique.

Before he realized it, he was leaning against a piece of wall, already several pages in.

And he could've left then, too.

He could've left even when the dobe, his cousin, and the Nohara girl came to his teammate's room to see what they were up to.

Could have left when, after the girl silenced all of them with a finger to her lips, pulled some more things from her shelves - an advanced taijutsu scroll with illustrations, a book on ninja basics, and a book on poisons and how to counter them, and then handed them to each of them with an offer to join them.

He didn't though.

Even when the adults, finally noticing the lack of noise, came to investigate as well and he caught the bewildered but pleased looks on their faces as they took in the scene. All of them, sitting on the bed, strewn across the floor, leaning against the wall, reading.

"Glad you're enjoying your present Hakka-chan," he could hear Kushina-san say, "Whenever all of you are hungry, there's food in the kitchen for all of you."

She received five grunts of absent acknowledgement in response.

**XX.**

"S-sensei?" he finally said, hating how his voice wavered like it had.

"Yes Obito-kun?"

"I messed up today, right?" When sensei didn't answer immediately, he pushed on. "I know I did. I messed up. A-And Hakka-chan and Kakashi, they got-" He took a breath. "Sensei, why haven't you yelled at me yet?"

"Would it help?"

"I-I, don't know? Maybe?"

A hand landed on his head.

"I don't know if it would help you either, but I know it won't help me, so I won't be yelling. To be honest, I'd had doubts about this mission from the start. I took the mission even though I wasn't sure if the three of you would be ready, and then I left all of you alone. It was my fault."

"No sensei! It wasn't your fault, it-"

_It was my fault! My fault! My fault!_

As if to save him from his thoughts, the hand on his head gave his spikes a ruffle and pushed his goggles down over his eyes.

"I know you think it's your fault Obito-kun. Mistakes were made, but not all of them were yours. You just wanted to help your teammate."

"Yeah, and I got both of them hurt, instead."

His mind wandered back to their mission. To the moment that man had laid his hands on his teammate. And he'd known, known that the purpose of their mission was espionage, that Hakka-chan was doing her part to extract information from the target. But the scene had looked a little too real. She was a little too good at looking defenseless and scared, and when that man had slapped her hard enough for her head to snap jarringly to one side and blood to leak from the corner of her mouth, he just lost it.

Obito wasn't exactly a stranger to seeing people hurt. Once a member of the Uchiha clan joined the Academy, they were brought along for patrols with the Military Police to give them experience protecting the village. Seeing the civilians preyed upon by ninja and other predators had always made him sick. He'd never be in the Military Police; it wasn't in him to work alongside his stuffy clansmen like that. However, he did believe in using his strength to protect the weak. On those patrols, he'd been held back by the adults from helping those people out.

This time, he wasn't going to let anyone hold him back.

Without much more than glancing at where Bakashi was supposed to be, he'd rushed in to defend Hakka-chan.

For a moment, it had been exhilarating standing over the jerk who thought he could hurt his teammate and grinning winningly at her.

Then everything descended into chaos as the man leapt right back up and called for his ninja guard to seize them. Kakashi had jumped in at some point to help them out, but there were just too many enemies and all of them had been chunin, too.

They had been lucky, so lucky that Minato-sensei had come back right then to save them. Obito had thought everything was okay until he looked his team over and realized what his reckless move had caused. Their target was dying and both Hakka-chan and Kakashi were hurt, Hakka-chan moving with a limp and Kakashi trying to play off a non-fatal but still significant stab wound as fine and failing.

And of course, Obito had come out of the entire thing with nothing worse than just a cut on his cheek.

The mission was still partially successful because Hakka-chan had managed to extract information they'd needed from the man. However, with the secrecy of the mission compromised and two team members injured, they had gotten a pay dock and a lecture from the Hokage himself.

Well, only he and Minato-sensei had been there to hear it when they turned in their mission report. Hakka-chan had been forced to take a woozy-from-blood-loss-but-ready-to-flee Kakashi to the hospital as soon as they got to the village so both of them could be treated.

(Kami-sama, he could still see Kakashi's blood on the metal protector of sensei's gloves from when he'd had to stitch him up once they'd gotten somewhere safe. His blood, his fault, his-)

"Obito." And suddenly he was sitting and Minato was crouched in front of him. "Please listen to me Obito."

Because he said please and because he asked, the boy swallowed his apologies and tried to listen.

"This was not a mission that the three of you were ready to handle as a team and that's not your fault. I can't go back and change my decision to take the mission just like you can't take back attacking the target when you did. What we can do is make sure that if this ever happens again, we can try to make better decisions next time. I will not accept an espionage mission again until I think I've trained the three of you enough to handle one. What can you do next time so this doesn't happen again?"

"I'll train more. Get stronger so I can protect them?" he asks more than says, hoping this is the answer sensei is looking for.

Based on the look sensei's giving him, it isn't.

"That's good, but there's something else. Think about why you felt like you needed to act when you did."

He does. Thinks about how great it had been in the moment to be the hero and shove it in Bakashi's face that he was the one saving Hakka-chan. How great it had been that he knew better than both of them.

It was galling to come to the realization that he didn't trust either of them enough to be able to gauge the situation and handle themselves. He'd yelled at Bakashi a couple of times now for taking down the guy Obito was supposed to be fighting, though he knew he may not have been able to handle them himself. And Hakka-chan had KO'd him enough times in spars to prove that if she were in trouble, she would've just put a senbon in the guy's neck and called it a day. Both of them would've known better than he would if Hakka-chan had really been in danger.

"Trust," he murmured.

"Hai, Obito-kun." And then sensei's hand was on his head again. "Getting stronger is good, but you have to learn when it's less about strength and more about trust, too. You may not always get along, but when you have teammates, trust and teamwork are the most important things to remember."

Minato-sensei's words sound wise. They probably are. He's a smart guy, and that's half the reason why he respects him so much. However wise they are, they're still a little hard to swallow. Sensei promised he would do better, though, so Obito can promise too.

He nods like he understands, and makes the effort to stop drowning in tears of self-pity behind his goggles.

* * *

AN: You all know how much I love my Obito scenes and their light heartedness... Which was why I did that. But hey! Obito gets some attention from Minato, yay! Anyways, I promise, my loves, I am only slightly traumatized by actually reading canon. I'll get better.

(1) I researched clones a bit to see if I got it right. Apparently, there's contradictory information on whether a clone can be put under genjutsu. In this story, I am rolling with the idea that no, genjutsu does not work on clones.


	7. Chapter 7

**XXI.**

"Kakashi-kun has some big news today!" Minato announced, and the aforementioned boy couldn't help rolling his eyes.

"Hey, hey, what is it?" Uchiha demanded, rolling back and forth from the balls of his feet to his heels, keeping one arm propped on their female teammate's shoulder.

"I've been invited to participate in the next round of jounin exams," the silver haired boy informed him.

The dark haired boy was predictably loud and bouncy in his reaction to the news, just like how the girl was the exact opposite, silent and still. Kakashi found himself on the receiving end of a back slap of congratulations, and internally grumbled. When had he ever given the impression that physical contact outside of sparring was acceptable? Maybe he was being too lax in their spars, the Uchiha had been much too familiar for the last couple months.

"Dude, that's awesome," Obito exclaimed, grinning at him in a way that made him stand up a little straighter, "Are you gonna accept the invite?"

Kakashi nodded.

Hakka flinched. The jounin hopeful almost gaped at her, but caught the reaction just in time, quickly looking away instead. Sensei seemed to have seen it too, and shared a glance with Kakashi before turning his attention back to the boys.

Usually a curse, this time it was a blessing when the Uchiha's short attention span struck and he began pestering sensei to help him with his taijutsu. Minato-sensei told Kakashi and Hakka that they could train however they wanted since today was meant to be an easy day. The boy didn't miss the pointed look sensei shot him and Hakka. He groaned.

How was he supposed to do this?

When he saw the girl wander off to face a tree, pulling a senbon or two out as she went, he moved to take a position at the tree next to hers.

_Thunk. Thunk. Thunk._

This was the kind of thing Uchiha did, not him. He pushed, and he pressed, and he teased. The other boy was the one who could get the girl to react.

_Thunk. Thunk. Thunk._

"Are you alright Hatake-san?"

He stiffened.

"Hai," he answered, planning to stay silent until his lips moved again and he asked, "Are you?"

She stilled in the middle of throwing a set of senbon, and then mechanically lowered her arm, turning her head to she met his gaze head on. There were days she'd stare him down with eyes that seemed so empty and he couldn't help but look away. Then there were days like today when they suddenly flickered with something just below the surface.

And it was today that he decided he wasn't going to back down like usual.

He wanted to know why.

Something in his expression, or maybe his body language, must've signaled to her his determination. She offered him a small dip of her head and then took a seat at the base of the tree. After a moment's hesitation, he took a seat next to her.

"Our team… is a good team."

That wasn't what he had been waiting for, but he nodded along. It seemed like the right thing to do.

"You'll make jounin."

Was that supposed to be a congratulations? A show of faith? A jealous stab?

"Statistically speaking, once the members of a genin or chunin team begin to advance, the likelihood of the team being broken up to take advantage of their specializations and socialize them with other teammates rises."

What?

"You will proceed to ANBU, most likely specializing in assassination. Uchiha-san could go just as far, guarding people, hunting missing nin." Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw her smile. "He could be a great leader, a kage even, if he gets that far. After Namikaze-sensei becomes hokage himself."

"What about you?"

"I know my future."

A future she wasn't willing to share him, apparently.

"Why bring it up?"

"Because we'll all go our separate directions, starting with you."

His eyebrows crept up his forehead.

"Are you-" he started, pausing in his disbelief, because Obito was already acting weird enough these days and now this? "-worried our team will… be broken up?"

"Something like that."

He almost snorted, because that was just ridiculous.

"You've met our teammates before, haven't you?" he muttered. When she said nothing, he continued. "The dobe would never leave either of us alone, challenging us to spars and always losing. And sensei? You're the one who said he'd be the next hokage. You think he'd let our team go our separate directions? He'd just keep sending us out on missions together. We'll be stuck together forever."

Kakashi's mouth clicked shut when he felt her intense stare on him. Her expression could have been called blank, but somehow he could sense her measuring him.

"Maybe," he heard her say softly, "We'll see."

**XXII.**

"You know, this is not how normal friends hang out."

That was what he had said, however, it came out sounding more like, "Mmm _mmnn_, mmph mf mmt mmm mnm_mmm _mmmmmph mmmm mmt."

Any regular person would have thought the noise just that, meaningless noise. However the girl at his side turned to him and gave him a look that told him not only had she understood him, but also just what she thought about normal friendships.

Sighing, Obito tugged at the stupid breathing mask she was making him wear. He didn't care if it was a special ordered from Rain, it looked dumb on him and his face was all sweaty underneath it.

He didn't know exactly why, but she'd started having him help her with gardening. It wasn't that he hated it, just that he still worried he'd lose a hand to that one monster plant. And he remembered the days past where he'd just watch her work and feel a little guilty that he wasn't helping her out.

Gardening with Hakka-chan was a lot different than gardening with the oba-sans at the Uchiha complex. They were always so chatty, asking him about his progress as a ninja and gossipping about Kaeko's daughter-in-law this, or little Itachi-chan that. Hakka was a lot less chatty. Like, a lot. With Hakka-chan, the sound of shifting soil and the snipping of clippers were more constant sounds than her voice. He really couldn't be blamed for the things he blurted out when the silence was unbearable after only three minutes.

Although, he was usually better at picking harmless topics, which was why he slapped a gloved hand to his masked face after he accidentally let slip, "I have the sharingan now."

It was both a little disappointing and somehow still unsurprising that, instead of some melodramatic reaction, she just hummed like she was agreeing with him. Like she already knew. And dammit, she probably did. Somehow, even though he'd only just awakened it not that long ago, she had found out.

"...How long have you known?"

"Tanzaku Gai."

He winced. From the beginning then. Obito hadn't even realized it when it happened, too caught up in Kakashi getting stabbed to question his insane reaction speed then. It was only in retrospect that he'd realized that the sharingan, not the adrenaline, had helped carry him through that battle so well.

"I was going tell you," he quickly explained, remembering the talk he'd had with sensei in the aftermath.

To his overwhelming relief, she just nodded.

"I'm going to tell sensei and Bakashi as well," he added just as fast, "I mean, they need to know too, right?"

She gifted him with one of her rare, tiny smiles and the warmth that blossomed in his chest as a result of it was like a blazing sun.

"You should save it until the next spar," she advised a moment later, smile morphed into flat line of concentration as she harvested the leaves of a spotted plant, "A good shinobi knows to use a secret technique to their advantage in battle when they can."

The boy couldn't help but gape at her for a moment before a grin so wide it hurt his cheeks spread across his face, all hidden from view beneath his mask.

"Kushina-san's going to be so proud when she hears this!" Obito mock sniffled as he pretended to wipe away fake tears over his goggles, "Our Hakka-chan, proposing a prank on Bakashi and sensei!"

**XXIII.**

"Arigatou," the redheaded woman moaned as she pulled the pot of hot nectar to her and started taking long swigs straight from the lip.

"Uzumaki-san, please attempt to save some for Namikaze-sensei."

"Ah, that's fine Hakka-chan," the blond said exasperatedly, "I had some before I got here."

Feeling more alive, the woman took in the girl's blank expression and got the distinct feeling of disapproval.

"Don't give me that look, chibi," she muttered as she closed her eyes and sunk deeper into the coffee pot.

She didn't even have to open her eyes to know that the look had increased two fold.

"Minato, you gave me a little governess, not a kid," she complained, hand flailing in Hakka's direction.

"Maybe that's a good thing," he muttered into the cup of tea the girl had given him when the woman refused to relinquish the coffee.

"What was that, hmm?" the readhead hummed out long, low, and with a dangerous upward lilt.

The blond man choked, his expression tipping into panic.

"Namikaze-sensei is simply glad that I am looking after you, like you look after me," Hakka cut in, and Minato was quick to nod along like that was exactly what he had said.

"Right," the woman said after a moment, now glancing questioningly at her boyfriend, "So what are you doing here so early Minato? Not that I mind even the slightest seeing you, but usually you only show up in the morning if you're coming to steal this one," she reached over to tug at the girl's shirt sleeve, "away for a mission. And then I would mind, because then I won't get to see either of you for at least a week."

"Nothing like that this time," he explained to her, chuckling, "Although we do have a long term mission we'll be going on sometime in the future. Hokage-sama has been a bit vague on the details of that one."

"So what are you here for then?"

Hakka suddenly stood and disappeared into the kitchen.

"Hakka-chan asked me to ask you if you could have a family dinner with the team tonight, Kushina," he murmured to her softly after Hakka had left.

Kushina's eyes grew misty and she swallowed convulsively.

"H-How come?"

They both knew the girl was not the type to ask for anything so frivolous. Minato shook his head.

"I don't know. But it's good, isn't it?"

She nodded. It had been a while since she'd been this choked up. Probably not since that day all three of them went down to the Administration Building to finalize the papers making Hakka the ward of Kushina and Minato both. The woman scowled at her boyfriend. Damn him, he was the one who was supposed to be the more emotional one in this relationship.

"It's not just you, Kushina," he whispered to her, using one hand to cup her cheek and touch his forehead to hers, "Me too."

"Mmm." She let herself sniffle a bit. "It's gonna be a pain in the ass to get the boys to agree, though."

"Actually," he said with a light laugh, "They're surprisingly weak when it comes to Hakka-chan."

"Really?" Kushina leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. "I'll have to take your word for it."

**XXIV.**

At first, he didn't recognize the girl they passed on the street. All he knew was that at one moment, his teammate was at his side and the next, the taijutsu specialist burst into a whirlwind of movement and Youth heading in her direction.

"Gai! Wait, stop-" he tried.

"Oh cunning and fierce Teammate of My Eternal Rival!" the boy in green exclaimed, stopping just in front of her, "It is very lucky that I have run into your lovely self!"

He watched as the girl looked up at Gai and he waited for her to freak out, because that was usually what girls did when faced with Gai. It was curious that she didn't do anything of the sort. Instead, she met him with a short bow.

"Maito-san," she greeted evenly, "Good afternoon. How are you?"

"I am feeling quite well and Youthful today, sweet…" he trailed off, slipping into a thoughtful pose, his gaze intent on her. "Hmm. Ebisu?"

The boy jumped when addressed. "Gai?"

"I find myself at an unyouthful loss." There was a pause. "What beauteous flower would you say best fits this lovely maiden?"

Ebisu put his face in his hands. He almost missed the girl suggesting something herself.

"Sage."

"That isn't even a flower," Ebisu mumbled.

"The sage plant has flowers," she corrected, and the boy blushed at having been heard, "And it is nice. Is that a suitable suggestion Maito-san?"

"It is, sweet Sage Flower! Now that we have solved that, I move on to more important business. Dear Sage Flower, I do not mean to unyouthfully accuse you, but you are in possession of a Most Valuable Belonging of a Dear Comrade."

"You mean Shiranui-san's senbon?"

"The very same. I hoped to speak with you about returning it to him. He misses it terribly."

"What? Gai, he doesn't even-"

Just as Ebisu tried to interrupt this time, he found Gai's arm slung around his shoulders, the other boy's grip bruising. His words fell away in a soft whimper.

"I see." She paused to look down at herself. "I don't have it with me."

"Worry not, Dear Sage Flower. Simply seek out Genma at your soonest convenience so you may give it back in person."

"I will." She glanced down the street. "I should be going. It was nice speaking with you, Maito-san. I will tell Hatake-san that you said hello.

"That would be most appreciated!"

"Then I will do so." She bowed once again. "Goodbye Maito-san. Send my regards to Shiranui-san."

And then she was gone.

"What the hell was that Gai?" Ebisu demanded once the taijutsu specialist had released him.

He punched Gai when the other boy's only response was his trademarked Good Guy Pose.

(He would only be confused further when, after Gai told Genma about what had happened with the strange girl, Genma tackle hugged their spandexed teammate.)

* * *

**AN:** Ugh. This chapter is late. I'm sorry everyone. For the wait, I added the treat of a, well, not quite Genma scene, but Gai/Ebisu scene with hints of Genma? Most of you seemed pretty happy with the Genma section.

Next chapter will be some more alternative perspectives outside of Team Minato. Please suggest some outside perspectives you would like to see. I may use some of those suggestions. Also: Cookies to anyone who can guess why Hakka chose sage.

**AN2:** Recently, I received a review from someone that expressed to me that not naming the speaker of sections is confusing and not in a good way. I decided to respond to this review within this AN because I wonder, are there others of you who feel the same way? Part of the reason for the way I write this story is that I am experimenting with writing a story in POVs outside the "protagonist's" POV. Also, I thought it would be fun to use roman numerals because I've seen other people using them. Finally, I don't name the POV in the chapter because I want readers guessing initially as to who is talking. It's fun for me to find ways to hint at their identities without immediately giving them away (or at all). I apologize to those of you who do not like it, however I am not going to change anything; the story is the way I want it to be. If it confuses you, PM to ask me what's going on because I would be happy to answer. If that is not enough, then the story may not be for you. I would then be happy to recommend other stories that may be less confusing alternatives.

(Please do not read this AN as an angry or sarcastic attack at the reviewer. It is meant as a simple response to a good comment on the story.)


	8. Chapter 8

**XXV.**

"You have been in Konoha often as of late, Jiraiya-kun."

The large man (and some days, he wondered when that happened, because hadn't he once just been a boy no taller than his waist?) turned to face him with a grimace. That would've been a tip off to him that something was up with his student, if it hadn't been for the fact that he'd already known for a while now. That, and that instead of finding him at his usual haunt, the public bath houses, he was just wandering the streets of Konoha rather aimlessly. After five minutes of watching him like that via his crystal ball, it had only seemed right to confront him then.

So now, here they were, strolling side by side through Konoha. More than one stall owner was left stars truck in their wake.

"Work keeps bringing me back."

Detecting lies was a skill decades of life as a ninja had honed. It was why he could tell that while Jiraiya wasn't lying to him, there was plenty he was withholding. If his student's work kept pulling him back to Konoha, then there was something very serious happening. The question was, what exactly? There was always unrest with the clans, especially the Uchiha. Or Danzo up to mischief behind his back, as per usual. Or, taking note once more of Jiraiya's cagey expression, maybe it was a little closer to home. Something to do with Minato.

"Did Minato-kun ever figure out what was going on with his student?" Hiruzen asked suddenly, tipping his hat slightly so it hid his face a little better.

Jiraiya stiffened for only a millisecond, but that was all it took. His student quickly tried to recover with a response.

"Yup. Did some digging and I found out the kid fell in with a bad crowd when she was younger. Passed that information along to Minato with the suggestion that he and Kushina keep doing what they've been doing to keep her busy and safe."

"I see," the hokage acknowledged. He kept his expression limited to one of detached concern, "I hope they succeed in doing so."

Again, he wasn't being lied to, but there was still more to this than what was being revealed. What in the world about Minato-kun's little student could demand such secrecy?

He remembered her file crossing his desk a couple times. Orphan. Sponsored by the council and privately mentored when it was discovered she had genius potential at a young age. His advisors had even pushed for her placement on Minato's team, even though such a move would unfairly stack the team. A budding poison mistress with high proficiency in long ranged weapon handling and information gathering. If not for Minato voicing concerns about promoting her, he would have accepted the sponsorship coming from both T&amp;I and the Jounin Commander wanted to bump her to jounin.

(Both Inoichi-kun and Shikaku-kun still seemed annoyed by his rejection.)

"It's still a pleasant surprise to see you so often," Hiruzen said, deciding to back off once more, trusting that Jiraiya would read him into the situation if he needed to, "I don't see much of you or your teammates these days. I would think that the three of you were avoiding me."

He could see it in the planes of his shoulders and the lines in his face when Jiraiya relaxed, even as he pretended to be sheepish at the accusation. Playing along, he chastised his student, all the while making a mental note to find time to check in with Minato-kun.

**XXVI.**

Setting up security for one's home was normal if one was a ninja. The level of security varied based on how paranoid the given ninja was, from proximity seals to traps rigged to god at even the slightest provocation. Genin often didn't bother, but that changed once they advanced in rank and found that they were renowned enough to have their own entry in the bingo book.

She wouldn't call herself paranoid or that well-known as a chuunin, but she was always good at listening to suggestions. When Ugai-sensei told her team to practice with seals and it had seemed practical to learn ones that would be good for security. Well, more practical in comparison to the ones that blew things up like her teammates gushed about. It had just made sense to practice by using them in her home. Most of the time, the only thing the proximity seals picked up was her father puttering around the house and the cat meandering in and out.

However, in the dead of night, the seals picked up a presence passing onto her family's property. It was almost too late of a warning, because by the time she had been alerted, she was only just rolling out of her futon into a crouch and strapping a weapon pouch to her thigh when she spotted the intruder. In the dark, it was difficult to ascertain the identity. Pulling out a kunai, she demanded that they reveal themselves, hoping that they were just a messenger ninja. They remained perched in her now open window, heavy shadow blacking out their front.

They jumped down, making her twitch and grip her kunai a little tighter.

"Identify yourself!" she barked, sounding braver than she felt.

A strip of moonlight knifed through the shutters of another window, and the figure passed through it as they began to move. It wasn't much, but it was enough to get an idea as to who it was. She pulsed her chakra sense just to be sure, and let out a shaky breath when her suspicion was confirmed.

"Hakka-san!" she hissed, standing and lowering her kunai but not putting it away, "What are you doing here?"

A choked, high pitched sound filled the room. It took a moment for her to realize it was laughter.

Before she could ask again, Hakka-san spoke.

"I don't know!" the intruder shuddered out. "Why am I here? I don't know why I'm here."

The grip the girl had on her kunai spasmed with her indecisiveness. Hakka-san staggered a little closer, her body language erratic and impossible to pin down in the darkness. Just as she prepared to lift the kunai again in case she needed to use it - and oh Kami, would she have to use it to defend herself from her friend? - the other girl came to a halt before her and dropped to her knees.

"Rin," Hakka-san whispered, and the medic-in-training startled, the kunai falling out of her hand with a clatter.

"Hakka-san…"

"But you're here, Rin!" Even though it was hard to see, the usually stoic girl's jade eyes were visible, wide and fevered. "It doesn't matter if I'm here, but you have to stay, you can't ever-"

And then those jade pupils rolled up into the back of her head and Rin had to get down on her own knees to catch her so she didn't fall the rest of the way to the floor. Her training took over at that point, putting a hand over her mouth to check her breathing and then to her neck to check her pulse. She saved using the diagnostic jutsu for last, and was alarmed by what she found.

Chakra dangerously low. No wounds, but there were signs of past injuries, severe and spanning a time period ranging from only hours to years ago. It wasn't unusual for ninja to have quite a few, but there were so many reading from just the last week, let alone the last month.

Hefting the girl into her arms, Rin lifted and carried her to her own futon and deposited her there. The smart thing to do would've been sending out a chakra distress flare for someone from either the Uchiha Military Police or ANBU to come and transport Hakka-san to the hospital. But she hesitated. This entire situation was really strange. And if she were to explain the strange behavior leading up to her collapse, she may be subjecting her friend to a mandatory psyche evaluation against her will. Hakka-san had seemed disturbed, but not violent. Maybe all she needed was some rest.

Mind made up, Rin pulled her desk chair to the side of her bed and settled into it to keep watch. She would speak to Hakka-san in the morning when she woke and see what was wrong. And, if it turned out to be necessary, she would talk to Hakka-san about seeking help.

.

She woke to the sun streaming into her room, hitting her right in the face in the most annoyingly bright way possible. Her face pinching in irritation, she reached under her head and pulled her blankets over her face. For a while, she lay like that, enjoying the almost entire darkness. Why was she still so tired? Usually, she'd be awake before the sun was even up. With a sigh that turned into a yawn, she pulled herself up into a sitting position. Tucking her legs into herself, she lifted her arms above her head and stretched them.

"Mmmn," she groaned, feeling and hearing her spine pop and crack.

A lazy sweep of a glance around her room was stopped dead when she spotted a kunai lying innocently out on the floor near the window where it didn't belong. Scrambling over, she snatched it into her hand, her thoughts and heart racing as she finally remembered the events of last night.

"Hakka-san," Rin gasped, dread rushing through her.

**XXVII.**

There was a knock.

Pausing, he shot a glare in the direction of the door. Who the hell could be bothering him this early in the morning before he'd had his coffee? His whole team, thick headed as they were at times, knew better than to bother him like this on his day off. Setting the can of coffee down on the counter, he grumbled under his breath, pushed his hair out of his face, and went to the door. Pulling it open, he prepared to give the person on the other side of the door a tongue lashing.

At the sight of them, anything he'd planned to say got lost on the way from his brain to his mouth.

All that he did manage was a startled, "You?"

"Ohayou, Shiranui-san."

There were rings around her eyes, and the senbon she wore to keep her hair in a bun were in tragic disarray. But she had the morning sun at her back and what smelled like a thermos of coffee in her hand, so she may have been the prettiest thing he'd seen lately.

"Ohayou," he echoed, blinking a couple times, "What are you…?"

"Maito-san said I should find you so I could return the senbon I took from you."

She held out his long senbon and the senbon holder in one hand and the coffee thermos in the other.

"Arigatou," he settled on at first before pulling his door open further, "Would you like to join me for breakfast? You brought coffee, so it only seems fair to offer."

"I can't-" Well that was disappointing. "-my team is going on a mission in half an hour."

"Oh." Inspiration struck again. "How about I walk you to the gates then?"

Now that he thought to look for them, those were some interesting micro expressions he saw flutter across her face before settling back into that bland smiling expression. She'd been mostly surprised by his offer, and somehow also saddened and pleased by it. Why she thought she needed to hide anything from him, he didn't know, and he didn't ask. He just smiled encouragingly at her, and waited for her to answer.

When she gave him a hesitant nod, he grinned full. Quickly, he pulled on a pair of sandals and his jacket stepped out, closing and locking his door behind him. He stood at her side, waiting until she started leading him towards the gates.

"Are you allowed to say what kind of mission?" Genma asked, a while after he fell in step with her.

"Demolition," she answered as she passed him the coffee thermos, and he noted the flare of anxiety and sadness, again.

"Worried about it?" He popped the lid and took a swig, fighting the urge to let his eyes shut in bliss.

"It will be successful." The micro expressions read the same.

"It's okay to be worried about a mission, even if you know you won't fail."

"It will be hard," she finally admitted, "For my team."

There was something foreboding in the way she said that. Shaking off the feeling, he took another sip before offering the thermos back.

"Here's to hoping it won't be then."

After staring at the thermos for a while, she nodded, grasped it, and took a sip of her own before passing it back. They talked a while longer, about their teammates, about their favorite weapon in common, and about places they liked to frequent. It helped that they really did walk the entire way there instead of taking the ninja highway, giving them the time they needed to talk. However, too soon it seemed, they arrived at the gate. He came to a halt far enough away that they would be out of earshot from the half of her team already at the gate waiting for her, and signaled for her to do the same.

"Keep these, Hakka," he told her, pressing the senbon holster she'd returned to him earlier back into her hand, "You might need them."

"Gratefully accepted," she said after a moment, and pocketed them.

When she looked back up at him, something passed over them both and they shared a small, secret smile. Genma still didn't know how he'd only just met this girl who was somehow happy and sad, plain but fascinating, kind even when dangerous. Where had she been? Why did he still not know more about her? He wished he had more time, but he could settle for waiting till she came back to find her again. And next time, he wouldn't leave it up to Gai to make things happen.

With a jaunty wave, he tucked the lone senbon he'd kept back where it belonged at the corner of his mouth and started the long walk back. The Uchiha on her team ran past him like a madman, making him look back and see the other boy rush over to her. He smiled at the sight of the almost motherly way she went about calming her teammate, her care and fondness for him so obvious.

"Good luck, Senbon-chan," he murmured as he turned back again.

* * *

AN: This is your warning now. There will be little to be happy about for a while in the upcoming chapters. If you're even a little attached to any of the central characters in this story, I'm going to be hurting them (and all of you unintentionally). Continue reading at your own peril.

In other news, once again, sorry about the slow updates. My writing is severely affected by my health and I have been very unhealthy lately. Getting better though.

AN2: AND OMG. SEBONSHIPPING IS LITERALLY A TERM MORE THAN ONE OF YOU HAS USED; IT'S OFFICIALLY A THING.


	9. Chapter 9

**XXVIII.**

It was inevitable that the boys would get into a fight at some point during this mission. Both of them had been better for a while now, Kakashi-kun a little less prickly, Obito-kun a little less reactionary. But this was their first mission out with Kakashi-kun serving as commanding officer, and the boy had regressed a little.

They'd just been trying to talk about how to split up shifts for when they made camp that night. One small gripe from Obito-kun about the shift he'd been given had been enough to set Kakashi-kun off. As he and Hakka-chan sat together, watching the two of them quarrel, he silently thanked Kami that at least they'd had this blow up while they were still in the safer part of Fire territory. This would have been unacceptable, and dangerous, in Kusa.

Turning away from their fight (but keeping half an ear on them nonetheless), he glanced down at the girl at his side. She looked tired, but not unhappy. Glancing at the fighting boys once more, he figured now would was as good as any to say what was on his mind.

"Ne, Hakka-chan?"

"Hai, Namikaze-sensei?"

"Kushina and I are planning on moving into a house together, once I get home from this mission."

"Oh." Her shoulders slumped a bit. "Thank you for the warning. I'm sure I can find a new apartment before Uzumaki-san moves out and sells her apartment."

"What?" His face pinched in confusion. "Why would you need to find a new apartment?"

"Isn't that why you told me?" She looked to him, her expression a muted version of his own. "If you two are going to be living together, I have to leave."

And, wow, did those words feel like a chakra enhanced kick to the gut.

"That's not it at all," he said softly, reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder, "I told you because we want you to come live with us."

"Sensei…"

Without meaning to, he twitched. He felt her tense under his hand.

"Only if you want to," Minato offered, squeezing her shoulder lightly, "We really do want you around. Kushina loves living with you, and she'd miss not having you pestering her about cleaning up after herself."

"Oh."

"Feel free to take some time to think about it. We'll accept whatever decision you make."

Then he sighed when, after tuning back into the boys' fight, he realized they had cycled back to their usual childish insults.

Minato's gaze darted between the girl and the silver haired boy. He'd made the same offer to Kakashi as well. Both he and Kushina had agreed that it would be wrong to make the offer to one but not the other. Kushina had been a bit put out when he told her they couldn't ask Obito-kun as well. If they tried to abduct the boy from his clansmen like she suggested, he wasn't sure who would come after them first: Fugaku-san or Mikoto-san.

Besides, if both Kakashi-kun and Hakka-chan said yes, he and Kushina would have their hands full.

(Really, Kakashi-kun wasn't even the slightest bit subtle with those _long_ glances at her.)

**XXIX**.

"Konoha no Shiroi Kiba, huh?" he muttered as he went to snatch another fish out of the water.

"You should be careful about where you say that out loud, Uchiha-san."

"Wah!" the boy yelped, the fish he had just managed to catch slipping right through his fingers. Pulling himself to his feet and spinning around, he looked at the person who had spoken. "Hakka-chan! What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that?"

"I wasn't sneaking," she commented lightly with a shrug, "I even stepped on several twigs to let you know I was coming. You didn't notice."

"Ugh," the boy grunted, his cheeks flaring, "I got it, I got it, I should be more aware of my surroundings while we're out on a mission."

"That's true," Hakka-chan said, "You also need to be careful about saying that name."

"Ah. So you know about his dad as well. Did sensei tell you too?" When she shook her head, he snorted. "Right, you already knew, like how you always seem to know everything. One of these days, you gotta tell me all your secrets."

She turned her old, creepy smile on him, and he quickly scrambled to redirect the conversation.

"...or at least call me by my name," he mumbled out.

The way she tipped her head gently to the side would've looked cute on any other girl. All he could interpret it as was her version of an eye roll.

"I just- I don't understand how anyone could think caring about your teammates is wrong," he babbled out, his mind back on Bakashi's dad and what happened to him, "I mean, I could never abandon you, or even the teme, even if it meant that I would break the rules. If I did, well, I'd never forgive myself. I could break the rules, be trash, but I could never let myself become lower than trash by abandoning you two!"

When exactly had he started yelling? Why was he suddenly breathing so loud? He glanced at her, embarrassed. She didn't laugh at him, though. And he knew she wouldn't, even when he said stupid stuff like that.

"And I could not abandon you or Hatake-san, either." She held a hand out to him. "Come. Let's finish catching dinner together. Hatake-san is probably already wondering what is taking us so long."

Obito failed to notice the glance she shot over her shoulder at the tree line behind them. Instead, he started grumbling about how Bakashi would lecture them both for being late with their dinner. However, he didn't forget to take hold of her hand for as long as she permitted it, which ended up being not that long once they started trying to catch fish in earnest.

It had been nice while it lasted.

**XXX.**

_Dammit. My fault. Dammit._

"Hatake-san."

He looked up at his remaining teammate, standing above him, unnaturally composed. For a moment, he hated her just a bit for that composure. How could she be so calm? How could she when the dobe was-?

"Were you injured any further when they attacked?"

Not wanting to snap at her, he shook his head.

"How is your shoulder?"

"Worse," was all he allowed himself to bite out, grimacing at the pain in his shoulder.

It was bleeding and hurting again, even after she had stitched it, applied accelerated healing salve, and used numbing pressure points earlier.

"Do you think you would be able to move? To fight?"

After a beat of hesitation, he nodded.

"Good," she said.

Hakka reached into her pack and pulled out the chakra charges they were meant to use to destroy the bridge and sensei's kunai. She then held the items out to him.

"Why are you-?" he started to ask, as he took them from her.

"As commander, you should finish the mission," she cut him off.

"Me? What about you?"

"I will retrieve Uchiha-san."

"But-"

"It doesn't matter if it's against the rules, Hatake-san." He noticed the strange fire burning in her eyes. "Report me if you must, but my only mission now is to ensure the survival of Uchiha-san."

Ice rushed through his veins.

"You can't just go and save him all by yourself-"

"I can." She turned her back on him then, and started walking away. "Stay safe and don't die, Hatake-san."

"Wait," he rasped out, and when she didn't stop, he shouted, "Hakka! Wait!"

To his undying relief, she stopped just as she prepared to channel chakra to her legs to run.

"You can't go alone because-"

"I can and-" she insisted.

"-I'm coming with you," he finished at the same time she did.

She went silent. For the first time since he met her, he saw the mask she always wore shatter as she faced him, her expression a mix of shock and wonder.

"You… want to come with me?"

Kakashi thought about _that man_, his father, and what he had chosen. He thought about how it had been the dobe, how it had been _Obito_, who had saved him from being taken at great cost. He thought about what the Iwa ninja would do to the Uchiha, because of his dojutsu.

Most importantly, he thought about the words he'd heard his teammates speak at the river, when they didn't know he had been listening.

If it had been him taken, his teammates wouldn't have hesitated for a second. They would come for him. They would never abandon him. And, he realized, he would never abandon them to death, torture, and despair.

"Hai," he finally answered, before lifting his hand to his mouth and biting his thumb. He slammed his bloodied hand into the ground before him and yelled, "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

Pakkun appeared in a burst of smoke, barking a greeting.

"Find Obito, Pakkun," he ordered, trying to convey with his eyes apology for his terseness with the summon.

The pug barked in acknowledgement and went to find the other boy's scent. Kakashi turned to Hakka, who was still regarding him with wide eyes.

"We need to move fast, soon they'll be trying to interrogate Obito for details on our mission out of him." _Or worse. _"Of the two of us, you're the least tired, least injured and you still have most of your chakra. When we engage the enemy, you'll lead the attack and I'll cover you."

"Okay," she accepted quietly, and paused to reach out and touch his arm, "Arigatou."

He nodded gravely, before signaling to her that Pakkun had found the scent. She was off after the dog the moment he made the gesture. Kakashi watched her running ahead of him for half a second before falling in behind her.

* * *

**AN:** Oh hell. It's coming. Seriously, brace yourselves for the next chapter.

Good news, though, is that I've been feeling better. Thank you to all of you who wished me good health and offered tips to beat the sickness. Bronchitis sucks and it just _does not go away fast enough._ I actually listen to music a lot when I'm sick, or working, or writing (or all of the above), and this story has been classic rock almost the entire way through. "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones was most helpful in getting this chapter off the ground. So now I'm curious, **what kind of music do all of you like?** I'm a classic rock gal at heart, but I'm interested in hearing new things. Genre, language, doesn't matter, you suggest it, I'll try it. Music greases the writing wheel, I NEED MORE._  
_

The best way to end an author's note is with fic reccing. I seriously encourage all of you to read "Starting Out at Six Feet Under" by datsonyat (a fantastic and suspenseful Rin!OC) and anything by Enbi.


	10. Chapter 10

**XXXI.**

Someone was ready to confront them right when they reached the cave at the tree line.

He remembered him. The stealth specialist, the one who had taken their teammate. The young jounin wanted him to suffer. His desire became reality when, before the Iwa nin had even finished materializing for a surprise attack, he went down. Senbon needles were lodged in the man's eye sockets and wrists. The man screamed, the senbon having gone in only deep enough to leave him blind, immobilized, and in agony. There were times he'd felt bad for the victims of his teammate's ruthlessness. Now was not one of those times. All he could think when he looked down at the man was, _She didn't use a numbing agent. Good._

"Do we need him alive?" Hakka asked, fisting the man's hair with a sharp jerk and putting a senbon to his neck.

Even through his pain, the Iwa nin snarled, "You'll die! You're dead!"

"_No_," Kakashi answered in a rumbling growl.

In the space of his eyes shutting and opening once more, the senbon had disappeared. The girl let the large man drop like a rock at her feet. The boy watched dispassionately as blood dribbled from the hole on the back of the Iwa nin's neck, just visible beneath his hair. He turned his gaze to Pakkun then. Nodding at the pug in gratitude, he dismissed him and caught Hakka's eyes. Signaling to her, they rushed toward the cave entrance.

Hakka would go first again. It seemed like their opponents had advanced skills in genjutsu in common, and her genjutsu skills would come in handy if they needed to dispel anything. He would stall to give her time to find Obito, provide whatever emergency first aid she could, and get him to safety before returning to be back up.

That had been the plan, right up until the last Iwa nin turned to face them with a kunai clutched in one of his bloodied hands. As he turned, they saw past him, and glimpsed the figure propped against the cave wall. Half their face, their neck, and the collar of their jacket with splashed with crimson and gore.

"Everyone's useless," the nin muttered, stashing the kunai and wiping the blood on his hand off on his vest.

Barely audible over the pounding in his ears, Kakashi heard a choking noise come from his female teammate. A flurry of senbon whistled through the air, but not a one hit its mark as the target blocked with the wicked looking blades he had on either forearm. _Plink plink plink _sounds of senbon being deflected and falling to the ground were jarring enough to snap him of his horror at the sight of their teammate. Hakka's usual strategy of taking the enemy out quick and effortless wasn't working. The man was too fast and skilled for that. They needed to work together to overwhelm him instead.

"Hakka!" he barked, throwing signals over his shoulder as he drew his tanto and a kunai.

He darted at the man. Right when he was close enough to be in the other nin's attack space, he reversed his grip on his weapons and leapt, funneling some of his chakra into his arms to brace them. Only just barely did he manage to hold the block that trapped the man's weapons as their blades met, the impact vibrating through him. He'd definitely torn the stitches on his shoulder, though.

There was a _whoosh_ beneath him. He smirked to himself when the other nin's face contorted in fury and his knees began to buckle thanks to whatever Hakka had done. It was enough of a window for Kakashi to put the kunai in a shoulder and smash the hilt of his tanto into the man's temple. They went to the ground together.

Kakashi searched for Hakka then, and found her right where he had expected her to be at Obito's side. He dreaded her report, what she might say, as her fingers pressed to the other boy's neck.

"Alive…" he finally heard her breathe out, drawing the other boy close and cradling his head.

Shaking, he pushed himself to his feet and took a few staggering steps in their direction.

The sound of someone rasping, "Not for much longer…" had him halting.

A kunai whistled past him, and he heard it hit its mark with a thud and a wet gurgle. But it was too late. All around them, the walls were closing in.

"Run!" Kakashi yelled over the crashing and crumbling.

As he retreated, he glanced back and saw Hakka desperately trying to heft Obito up and carry him out. He skidded to a halt and prepared to go back and help her. Panic raced across her features when she saw him do so. It was gone in a second, replaced with grim determination. She stopped, planting her feet in a wide stance and pulling Obito over her shoulder.

Too late he realized what she was doing, as held out an arm, roaring, "Hakka, no!"

But she was already throwing Obito at him, and as they collided and went flying, he saw a flicker of a smile and her arm lift before all he could see was the world falling around her.

**XXXII.**

The sound of a howl woke him from unconsciousness. That, and the ache in one eye.

Had they finally released him from the genjutsu?

Voices, ones that sounded like his teammates, like his sensei, like Rin, had surrounded him. Calling him useless. A failure. A disappointment. So many words and ways to pick at him. It had almost hurt more than the torture.

The howl sounded again.

Slowly, he tried to open his eyes. With horrible understanding, he realized he could only see out of one. And as the scene before him became clearer, he wasn't sure he even wanted to see at all. He wondered, as his breathing stuttered, if he was actually still trapped in the genjutsu.

Another howl, torn from the throat of the silver haired boy, his teammate, his commander, as he slammed his fist into the rock in front of him, over and over.

There were words punctuating those awful sounds. At least, he thought they sounded like words. _No. Move. Why. _

His goggles and a tanto lay broken at the other boy's feet.

No.

The cave was collapsed.

Move.

There was a girl, face down, all but her head and one arm buried under rock.

_Why?_

He pushed himself to his hands and knees and started to crawl until he hovered wearily over her. Reaching out with one hand, he took hers, his heart clenching at its limpness. His heart gave another jump when her fingers twitched in his careful grip. Unable to help it, he squeezed her fingers, and whispered, "Hakka?"

"'bito..."

Tears welled in his only eye.

"Hai," he murmured, "It's me. It's me. You finally got it right."

"Obi-to," she whimpered, "'kashi-"

The sound of howls, fists beating upon stone, and broken words halted.

"Kaka- shi…"

"Kakashi," said Obito harshly, "Get over here."

He didn't hear him move, just felt him suddenly there at his shoulder. Hakka's arm twitched, and though she didn't release his hand, she kept reaching for something. Finally, Kakashi placed his hand on top of hers and Obito's. She calmed then, the agitation leaching out of her. Sighing, she pulled all three of their joined hands closer to her, and rested her head on them.

"More- more Iwa-" she managed to say before having to stop and take a few shuddering breaths, "Protec' each oth- oth-er."

"Hai," Obito promised, and saw Kakashi nod as well.

"Go." She pressed her face more firmly to their hands. "Should go. Be here- soon."

He felt Kakashi squeeze their hands before gently - more gently than Obito had ever seen him do anything - extracting his own hand from theirs.

"Stay with her," he heard the other boy tell him, before he disappeared.

Whether or not that was an order, he would follow it. It wasn't like he could leave anyway.

After a beat, Hakka pulled her hand free of his. His fingers tried to chase hers, hold them still, for a little longer, but she didn't let him. With what looked like great difficulty, she turned her head to the side and lifted her arm to pull one of the senbon that held her hair in its bun out. All of her hair fell loose around her face, but she paid it no mind. She held the hand with the senbon out. It took a while, but he finally understood what she wanted and took the senbon from her. Once it was in his hand, she pulled some of her hair away to bare her neck.

"Help me."

He shifted closer

"Tell me."

"Put it- 'ere," she whispered, and then touched a spot on her neck.

He flinched.

"No!"

"Please," she begged softly.

"I can't."

"Please," she said once more, "-no more. Hurt."

A sob ripped its way out.

"Hakka..."

"Can look away- just, please?"

Another sob wracked him, his body hunching forward until his forehead was pressed in her cheek. Even with dust and blood heavy in the air, he could still smell the sharp, sweetness of mint he always associated with her.

"I'm sorry," he chanted, over and over.

She dragged her hand over his head and let it rest on the crown.

"'s'okay-" she crooned, "Do it."

Refusing to close his eye, he stared straight into hers as he placed the senbon at the spot on her neck she had shown him. He kept mouthing apologies, and she kept running her hand soothingly over his head.

And then he pushed.

**XXXIII.**

It had been too long.

The few survivors of the frontal assault had been rescued once he had gotten there. But that had been a while ago. A longer while had passed since he had broken off from his students. There hadn't been a single summons through the kunai yet

His worry about leaving them on their own had alleviated some after his talk with Obito-kun had proven fruitful. Of all three of them, the Uchiha was the easiest to talk to, to advise. And he was usually the only one with the ability to shock Hakka-chan and Kakashi-kun out of their moods when push came to shove, meaning he was tricked into using it often. Someone might've had something to say about that tactic, but if it worked, then it worked.

No one ever taught you how to teach your students when you were given a genin team. He'd only been seventeen, a green jounin, when Kakashi-kun had first been apprenticed to him. It had seemed like barely any time had passed before two more kids had been tossed to him and he had to relearn how to teach, just when he'd gotten comfortable with his first student.

It was trial and error, making mistakes and finding ways to make up for it. Not a single one of them was like his own genin team under Jiraiya-sensei. He slowly learned that what worked for Sensei wouldn't always work for him. That each of them were different, and if he wanted to help them, he had to be different. And that maybe sometimes, he couldn't always be there for them.

He turned to the newly christened captain of the squad of survivors and informed them that he would be leaving them to collect his team. The captain looked for a moment like they would beg him to stay, but stopped after seeing his expression. She nodded in acceptance. The second she did, he threw out his senses. So many of his kunai were out there, but it didn't take long to find the special one he had given to Kakashi-kun.

Readying a few kunai and seals in case he was walking into a hostile situation, he pulled on his chakra and jumped.

Bodies littered the clearing he landed in.

Every inch of the clearing was covered in death and wafted the smell of burnt flesh. Immediately, he sent a kage bunshin off to secure the perimeter. He thought he would have to use his chakra senses, but another glance over the clearing and he was breathing a little easier at the sight of his team.

Two of them, he amended uneasily.

At first, all he could see was Kakashi-kun. Alive and slumped boneless against something, his eyes closed, head tipped back, and a kunai gripped loosely in burnt, blackened fingers. Looking closer, he realized the boy was leant back-to-back with Obito-kun. It was only when he laid eyes on the Uchiha. The feeling that had been growing in his heart when he noticed something missing exploded within him.

An exhaled, "_No_," was all he let slip before he had to pull himself together and approach the boys.

He called to them both, but only Kakashi-kun reacted to it. Obito-kun remained tightly curled into himself, his face pressed into his knees. The fingers the silver haired boy had on the kunai twitched as he cracked his eyes open and looked up at him.

"Sensei. I'm sorry."

It took everything he had in him to not let go at those words. He held it in, forcing his hand not to shake as he slowly placed it on the boy's shoulder, always keeping it within the line of his student's sight.

There were hundreds of questions he wanted to ask. _'How did it happen?'_ and _'Where is she?'_ were some of the most pressing ones. But he knew deep down that the answers he would get would only briefly satisfy his morbid curiosity, and ultimately leave him destroyed. There would be a time for that later, but not yet, not now. _Especially not now_, he thought, as he looked down into Kakashi-kun's flat, tired eyes, and over at Obito-kun's now trembling form.

Minato had failed his students today. It was something he could never make up for, no matter how hard he tried. The least he could do was help finish the mission and bring what was left of his team home safe, if no longer sound.

* * *

**AN: **A couple apologies, for different things. First, because I have taken so long with this chapter. I know how much it sucks to wait on a story, kept in suspense, and it's really uncool. I really struggled with this chapter, and with myself. At first, I was just having a hard time adapting to the weird direction canon was going and how big this chapter was going to be. And then the problems started being about me. To avoid over sharing, let's just say that some really awful things have happened to me in the last couple of months and I've been working through them, and leave it at that.

Thank you, all of you who have continued to read and have had kind and understanding things to say. Especially to those of you who gave me music. It always helps.

That said, I am also seriously sorry for this chapter, I cried multiple times through writing it, so I kind of shudder to think what I've done to some of you.


	11. Chapter 11

**XXXIV.**

There was a crack of energy that emanated from a single spot and swept outwards.

It traveled long distances, and as it went, set off different chain reactions of events.

One such chain began with an awakening.

An eye slid open, slow and sinuous.

The creature cast her gaze about, checking her surroundings as she gathered her wits. She had been asleep a long time and needed to know where she was and why she was there. By sight alone, she could tell she was in an ape nest. She was nestled beneath some construction of dead tree, hidden from sight by a subtle jutsu woven over her body. Extending her senses further, she tensed at the lack of a signature that should have been there to wake her.

Ah, she thought, it has come to this.

A twinge of disappointment came with the realization.

Though what she sought first was not there, there was someone else there. An old ape was in the nest with her. Old, but not feeble, beginning to come down from peak condition. And its energy was horribly tainted, reminiscent of those she answered to but darker. Warily, she tamped down further on her own energy, to make sure there was no way she would be discovered too soon. He seemed unaware of her presence, and that was good.

There was only one reason why she would wake like this, without the mistress.

Her kind was known for cunning, for stealth, and deadliness.

But there was more to them than that.

Uncoiling, she tensed every muscle in her body in preparation. From where she was under the construct of dead tree, she had the old ape within range. She struck out, clamping down on the closest thing to her. Foot, ankle? Ape parts were hard to remember. Regardless, the second her bite penetrated skin, the ape was dead, he just did not know it yet. She saw him prepare to attack her, tear her off, and quickly self-terminated her connection to this plane.

.

She found herself back in The Nest, amongst the rest of her kin.

"Is it done?" the king asked of her, looming above them all.

They had felt the echoes too, it seemed. They knew what had happened.

"Hai," she declared, raising her head.

Others lifted their heads with hers, hisses of triumph filling the nest.

Above all, they were fierce protectors of their young and always exact in their vengeance.

**XXXV.**

Fire seared every corner of her brain, and raced down her throat. It sent the woman to her knees.

The children who had been helping her in the kitchen wailed and crowded around her. It was terrible, the burning in her body coupled with their voices. But she bore it, refused to let herself become upset with them. She would never forgive herself if she lashed out at one of them, even if she was in pain.

_That never stopped you before._

She drove her clenched fists into her temples.

Suddenly, the pain faded to a dull pulse, and as she looked up, most of the children were gone. Only Urushi-kun was left, his small hands shoving a glass of water and a headache remedy haphazardly into her hands. He hovered at her shoulder, looking for the entire world like he was dying to speak but forcing himself to not do so. It was only after she swallowed the remedy dry and slowly chased it with small sips of water that he seemed to relax.

"You okay, Mother Nonou?"

And surprisingly, yes, she was okay. Better than, in fact. It was strange, it almost felt like something was missing, except it didn't feel like something to be missed.

It took only a moment more to realize what it was that was missing.

Pasting a reassuring smile on her face, she stood and patted Urushi-kun on the head, promising him she was alright. He eyed her somewhat mistrustfully, but shook his head exasperatedly before wandering off. Nonou watched him go, genuine fondness curling into the edges of her smile before it eventually slipped off altogether.

Almost as fast as shunshin, she rushed to find a mirror. When she had it, she opened her mouth wide and yanked her tongue out as far as it would go. To her awe, there were no black lines on it. Just to be sure, she channeled chakra through it. To be even surer, even though it came out awkward because her mouth was still open, she said deliberately to her reflection, "I hate Shimura Danzo. I hate Ne."

There was no flare of punishing pain. And her tongue stayed beautifully, wonderfully pink and unmarked.

It was gone.

A sob broke loose, and the hands that she had used to pull out her tongue for inspection were pressed to her mouth to contain her noises. She allowed herself sometime to adjust to what this meant. To the fact that her fetters were gone. At last she could live the life she chose without others being sacrificed for it.

At the thought of sacrifice, she immediately forced her sobs down.

Quickly scrubbing her face with the backs of her hands and rearranging her glasses, she stood and took a deep breath.

Her seal was gone, but that meant that all of the other operatives were no longer sealed as well. Not all would react to being released like she had. Some at least were autonomous enough that they may be able to go to ground without any trouble.

But the children- Her Kabuto-chan, and all of the others they had taken, they would be so lost. She needed to find them, all of them, and get them somewhere safe. Mentally, she catalogued all of the ones she knew of and where they were supposed to be. Most were still in the village, having been kept down in the compound for _training_ because Danzo was still trying to reproduce the success he had stumbled upon with Operative Hakka.

Nonou's chest constricted at the thought of the girl. There was no way to reach her right now, with her out of the village on a mission. Even then, she knew deep down the girl would never willingly accept her aid. Though Danzo thought her his perfectly loyal creature, she was far more than that. Maybe it was that she had seen a kindred soul in that girl, but her heart was easy to read. What might have been a kind and gentle child had been molded into a killer with a heart full of hate. Hate that Nonou had seen directed at herself in unguarded moments.

No, Hakka would never trust her. She would have to hope that free of Danzo's control, the girl would be able to take care of herself. Or at least, the woman hoped, remembering the girl walking with Namikaze's team and looking for once far from the broken thing she had been made into, someone else would be able to take care of her. For now, all Nonou could focus on was saving the children she could.

**XXXVI.**

Heavy was the burden of a leader.

Jokingly, he would say that it was the mountains of paperwork that made it so. Saying that wouldn't be without some truth.

But the greatest burden of a leader, if they so chose it, was the responsibility leadership came with. He chose to bear it, and it was both his greatest joy and torture to hold himself so responsible for the lives of his people. To rejoice in their successes and grieve for their losses.

As he looked at the many reports scattered across his desk, he knew it was a day to grieve.

The report sent ahead from the Kusa front was the first to reach him. Though the battle was deemed a win with the defeat of the enemy, the tally of Konoha ninja dead made his heart sink. There had been no way to anticipate Iwa sending one of their jinchuuriki to weaken their forces at the beginning so that they could be easily picked off at the end. No way to have even sent them more reinforcements than had.

His gaze slid to the next report, one from his student's student.

Minato's report had followed the one from the front, recounting what had happened there and continuing into what had happened once he had returned to his students. It was no less disheartening. It had been brisk, but even without extraneous detail, he knew how to read between the lines there. It had been success on behalf of the newly promoted Jounin Hatake. But the mission was not without complications. Or casualties. Yet another promising youth dying out on the battlefield. And there would be no chance to reclaim her body and properly honor her anytime soon. She had no clan and had been lost across enemy lines. Like many of their lost ninja, they would only be able to negotiate gathering their dead once the war came to a close. By then, there may be nothing left.

On top of the death, the Uchiha boy had apparently had an eye taken. It would make things difficult for a while. The Uchiha and the Hyuuga would be up in arms about dojutsu theft once more. That was not a council meeting he was looking forward to.

A deeper, more personal grief over took him, as he was reminded of last piece of bad news that had crossed his desk that day. An assassination.

When he was young, he was used to losing friends on the battlefield. Mourning them, avenging them if he could. He was older now, rarely going out of the village, and what friends he still had were the same. As bizarre as it had seemed, all of them had made it to old age, and may have yet died of natural causes.

Danzo had scoffed at that, the one time they'd joked about it over drinks.

And now, well.

It certainly wasn't natural causes that Danzo had died of.

An investigation would need to be conducted. A person of Danzo's political importance as advisor to the Hokage - to him - being killed within the walls of Konoha was serious. There hadn't been an assassination attempt of this level in years. Let alone a successful one in over a decade. And there were already... suspicions about who was responsible.

He needed Jiraiya. He was the only one he could trust with this. A summons would need to go out immediately-

A knock at the door interrupted his planning.

"Enter."

"Hokage-sama," the secretary said as she opened the door, "There is a woman here to see you. She claims she has information concerning Shimura-sama."

Eyes narrowing, he set his mouth in a firm line.

"Send her in."

* * *

**AN:** _"We interrupt your previously programmed grief and angst to bring you some well-deserved murder and mystery."_

So, hey everyone. Obviously, story's not over yet. Still some ways to go. Thank you so much though, for all of your reviews from the last chapter. The kindness you showed me was so amazing. I have a great support system amongst friends and family, and I am glad to consider all of you in the fanfiction community a part of it as well.

I would like to bring attention to a piece of fanart of Hakka made by the wonderful Gerbilfriend. It's been posted on my profile, so check it out! I love it to pieces, it's my first fanart ever and I feel like a kid that has been given the newest bestest toy in the galaxy and I want to share it with everyone.

(Also, Danzo doesn't deserve a death POV.)


	12. Chapter 12

**XXXVII.**

It was the seals that let her know.

Ages ago, when she was feeling a little bored and explosive tags weren't cutting it, she'd started playing around with security seals. It was purely by accident that she'd managed to create a seal array that could be keyed into certain chakra signatures and alert her whenever those signatures came into proximity with it. There were some practical uses for it, usually for espionage and surveillance missions, so it had been worth getting it reviewed and recorded as an actual technique. She had, of course, found a different sort of use for it.

Minato had been intrigued by the technique, and only too happy to be a guinea pig for what she proposed.

Mikoto-chan, before she'd gotten the words out, had sighed and simply said, _"Let's get it over with."_

Kakashi-kun, when he had come into their lives, had said "no" thirty-seven consecutive times and ignored her many more times after until he eventually gave in.

Obito-kun, when asked, had blinked and then shrugged and let her do what she wanted.

Hakka's response had been to ask, _"Will the seal have to be put on my body?"_ and only after she had answered no - that all she needed was a chakra sample - had the girl given her consent.

Near each gate, she placed a seal array keyed to each of her dearest people. It let her know when they left for missions and when they returned from them. If she could, she always tried to be there to greet them when they returned.

She had just stopped in at Ichiraku Ramen when she felt it.

It was the seals that let her know that Minato and the boys were nearing the gate.

Only Minato and the boys.

"The usual, Kushina?" the restaurant owner called to her over the chatter of his other customers.

"Ah, no, Teuchi-san…" said Kushina, her smile brittle, "Rain check for now."

She turned, pushing through the curtains and disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

.

Her eyes confirmed for her what the seals had been telling her.

She reached for the boys first, stealing quick touches before they were spirited away by the medics that had been called for them.

Then she went to Minato's side, taking his hand and threading their fingers together.

"Do you need to debrief with Hokage-sama right now?"

He shook his head, his eyes far away.

"Then come on."

They made it to his apartment without any trouble but in the second she took to turn away and press the door shut, he crumbled. He was on his knees, hands pressed to his face as his entire frame shook. Her eyes welled up immediately as she let herself sink down and join him, arms wrapped around his shoulders. His keening and whimpers filled the air, accompanied by the sobs she tried to stifle in his hair.

"She's _gone_."

"I know," she told him, burying her face into his neck.

**XXXVIII.**

As she packed up her satchel and prepared to leave for the day, someone grabbed her by the elbow down in the lobby.

"Ito-sensei?" She took in the sweat beading at his temples and his mussed uniform. "Did you need something?"

"Nohara-sensei, we need your assistance with a couple patients," he managed to get out in one breath, "Two returning shinobi were admitted just off of a mission earlier, and one reacted violently when given pain meds."

"Victim of torture or genjutsu?" she asked, her brows furrowed.

"Both."

Wincing, Rin urged him to direct her to the patients. She would need to have another discussion with the head of the hospital about training their staff in proper care of shinobi.

"Do you need my assistance to restrain the patient?"

"Maybe. The other patient actually asked for you, by name."

"Who are the patients?"

"Uchiha Obito and Hatake Kakashi. Hatake-san was the one who requested you."

Rin's stride almost slowed to a stop, before picking right back up. Worry for Obito-kun overrode the surprise. If Kakashi-kun was the one making the request, then Obito-kun…

The silver haired boy stood in the doorway, his back to the hall. He had put himself between all of the ruffled doctors and nurses and the only occupant of the room.

"Obito-kun!" She gasped as she peered over his shoulder.

"You're here." Kakashi-kun didn't take his eyes off his teammate. "He thinks he's stuck in a genjutsu. He's tried to attack everyone but me so far."

"What did you need me for?"

"You might be the only one who could help him."

Ito-sensei shot them an incredulous look, but she paid it no mind in favor of placing a hand on Kakashi-kun's bandaged arm.

"Let me in."

"Rin-sensei, don't!"

The last Hatake finally looked at her for a moment before allowing her passage. As soon as she was in, he retook his place blocking the door.

Obito had pressed himself into the corner the farthest from the door. As she approached, his head tilted up, and he assessed her with one bleary eye, the other hidden away by bandages.

"Hakka?" he rasped out.

Behind her, Kakashi-kun tensed.

"It's Rin, Obito-kun," she gently corrected him, presenting her empty palms face up and taking careful steps forward.

He stared at her blankly. She held her breath, wondering if she'd said the right thing.

Suddenly, his expression brightened.

"You're here Rin-chan!" He smiled wide, a strange mania lurking at its corners. "That's great! That's so great! You can- you can heal her!"

"Obito-" Kakashi-kun started, sounding strangled.

"Heal who?"

"Heal Hakka-chan! She's hurt pretty bad, and I-"

What little color was left in the part of his face that was visible drained out of it. Ghost white and shaking, he turned away from them and huddled back into the corner.

And _screamed_.

**XXXIX.**

Why was he here?

He looked around at the small group assembled and the feeling of not belonging grew. If not for Gai, who stood next to him dressed in his own mourning clothing, he may have just not gotten out of bed today.

It had been only a week ago that the Hatake kid had showed up at the end of their team training and pulled his teammate aside to talk to him. It had been odd, Hatake seeking Gai out instead of the other way around. With Ebisu, he had watched as the silver haired boy threw himself at Gai, starting a brutal spar that demolished the training ground.

The fight had ended suddenly, with quiet words traded amidst the final blows before Hatake disappeared in a flurry of leaves.

Gai had turned to them then, his face wet, and delivered the bad news.

They were shinobi. Death was a very essential part of who they were. That was especially true of their generation, practically raised in the war. Every time they were sent out on a mission outside the village gates, they could expect to kill or be killed. His own team had come so close to dying themselves as genin, and really would have if not for the horrible but timely intervention of Maito Dai.

That had been the first funeral he had ever attended, stood at Gai's side then, too. And he was just as dry eyed now as he had been that day.

He hated himself all the more for that.

His teammate split off from him to approach Hatake, who looked like he was about to fall over where he was at the fringes of the gathering. He recognized a drawn and pale Nohara-kun, trying and failing to talk to Uchiha. The boy was growing increasingly twitchy, pressing fisted hands to either side of his head. Eventually, he stormed off. Nohara-kun took a couple steps to follow, but was stopped by Namikaze-san's hand on her shoulder. The man shook his head at her with a soft and sad smile, before ambling after the boy.

There was a woman who looked like she could be an Uchiha as well in attendance, an arm slung around a redhead. The other woman's sobs made his head and chest throb and ache in a way he couldn't understand. Why couldn't he cry like her or Gai? Why couldn't he wear his grief openly like Hatake and Uchiha?

Sucking in a breath that rattled his entire body, he stepped forward, like strings were pulling his wooden limbs and joints. He reached into his jacket, pulling out the senbon that been absent from the corner his lips. Genma turned it over in his hand, watching light play along its sleek surface. Another moment of looking at it passed, before he knelt and set it down on the stone that had her name on it.

"I figured you would have appreciated this more than flowers," he told the stone with a wobbly grin, "You didn't need to give it back. It was yours, you know?"

The stone had nothing to say to that.

"Yeah, I guess you didn't."

With that, he got back to his feet and left.

**XL.**

The server treated him to a judgmental sneer as he placed a second sake bottle on the table with excessive deliberateness. It didn't even give him pause, as he grabbed the bottle and brought it straight to his mouth, ignoring the cups.

This was the first time in a week he had had time to stop and breathe, let alone drown in booze.

If only hime could see him now.

It was good she couldn't, he thought with a snort. She'd laugh and mock him as a hypocrite. That would come only after aggressively interrogating him as to what was eating away him, since that was the only way she knew how to show concern for him. All three of them had always been dysfunctional that way when it came to caring about each other.

The funerals hadn't been that long ago. He couldn't give a rat's ass about Danzo Shimura's, and he'd said as much in his reply to Sensei when asked about it. The old bastard may have been one of Sensei's oldest friends, but that still didn't make the man anything to him. And with all of the warhawk's extracurricular activities now coming to light, all he could think concerning Danzo was _good fucking riddance._

He'd been much gentler in his response to Minato, especially considering the news he'd received from him.

Even if he hadn't been busy chasing down the only lead in his investigation, he wasn't sure he could've made himself attend the funeral of the girl he had failed. He had promised he'd help her. And now she was dead, and Danzo was dead, all before he had been able to do anything.

This was like Sakumo all over again.

As the last drop of the bottle trickled down his throat, his thoughts turned unwillingly back to what had been running him ragged for the last month. On the heels of news of Danzo's assassination came the request to investigate the matter. It had come from Sensei himself, wrapped in seals and coded thrice over. There was only one real suspect on the hokage's mind, and though he attempted to suppress information and rumors on it, the entire village had already begun to whisper about it. No official charges had been made, nor had the suspect been declared a missing nin. But it was a matter of time before council would force the hokage's hand. That was an inevitability both of them awaited with dread.

His orders had been to find and question, not to apprehend or, hell, execute, the suspect. He was grateful for that, because he was not sure how he could've accomplished doing either on his own. Not without Tsunade-hime, and even if she didn't refuse, she may have struggled with it just as much.

Worries for later. He let slip a bellowing laugh, motioning for the irritable server to bring another bottle and shooting a wink at a pretty fellow customer he would unfortunately not follow up with.

In the morning, the hunt for Orochimaru would resume.

* * *

AN: I hate me a little right now. I mean. I know that I have a life and life things to do, but that doesn't stop me from thinking, "It's been months since you updated. You utter butthead." Ugh.

But yay, new chapter! Although, I don't know how "yay!" all of you are feeling. This one was a doozy, because so much sadness and pain, and all I want is rainbows and puppies and I don't get that. Like, I think I need to write a crack omake where Hakka just hugs Gai and gets dog piled by Kakashi's summons so that all of us feel less awful.

On another note, I don't even use hashtags much, but this chapter made my mind go weird places. Like: #ProtectObito2k15, or #TheHuntforOrochimaru, or #KeeptheLoveAliveSenbonshipping, or #GoodGuyGai. I'm pretty sure I need to stop using social media.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Warning: Self harm/suicide mentioned

* * *

**XLI.**

"You need rest."

"Take some time to recover."

"You'll get better. Don't worry."

What the hell did he have to worry about anymore? If he did worry about something, it wasn't about getting better.

He hadn't been better then. Not when it mattered.

He just wanted them to go away. Maybe if he rested, they would go away.

.

"You've been sleeping too much."

"You need to get up. Do something."

"What is wrong with you?"

He wondered a lot about that.

There was plenty wrong with him. How could he name just one thing?

.

"You know we care for you. You're not eating-"

Food tasted like ash and blood.

"-you haven't left this room in weeks-"

Had it been that long?

"-you're wasting away!"

Good.

.

"I know you miss her-"

Shut up.

"You're not the only one who is sad about her-"

Shut up.

"You have to accept that she-"

Shut. Up.

.

"You need to get back into a routine."

Routine?

"Start small. Was there something you liked to do?"

Something. Something he... liked?

"Take some time to think about it."

Yeah. There was something.

**XLII.**

"_Protect each other."_

She'd said that. And he'd sworn, not just in that moment but for as long as he drew breath, he would protect his teammate to his dying day. When it was announced that it was unlikely Obito would be able to return to active service, it had seemed his oath would be that much easier to keep.

Only, as he stared down at Nohara bent over a writhing and wheezing Obito, he realized he'd assumed wrong.

"What the hell were you doing?" he hissed.

"Hatake-san." Nohara shot him a sharp look over her shoulder.

It went ignored. He knelt and fisted the material at the left shoulder of the other boy's shirt, half tempted to drag him up and shake him. Only the green glowing hands hovering over Obito's chest, leeching poison from his lungs, prevented him from doing so. Fighting the impulse, he settled for leaning in and yelling.

"You idiot!"

"Hatake-san, I am trying to heal him right now and you are not helping!" the medic nin snapped.

"I-It's ok-kay Rin-chan." Obito, his eye now open and clouded in pain, stared right back at him. "I d-des-serve this."

Kakashi released the other boy's shirt and sat back with a huff. "What were you thinking Obito?"

"Th-They were h-hers."

"What?"

The Uchiha stared at the patch of poisonous plants they'd pulled him half dead out of.

"It was h-her garden. I came here all the time. With her. To help her take care of those stupid th-things." He let out a hoarse chuckle. "Did you know she's immune to most poisons?" He paused. "Was. Was immune to-"

His chuckles shifted into a halting laugh.

"Obito-kun…" Kakashi heard Nohara murmur, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw that her cheeks were wet.

"Did you know-?" Obito started up again, "Did you know that I killed her?"

"Obito-kun, it wasn't-!"

"My fault?" More of that awful laughter spilled from his lips. "I keep getting told that it wasn't my fault. But it always is. I'm always a screw up. She had to come save me. She got crushed under those rocks because of me. And she was in so, so much pain like that and I had to-" his voice broke off.

"You what?" Kakashi ask before he could stop himself, his mind already making leaps in logic he dreaded were right. "What did you do?"

"I killed her," Obito whispered, before continuing, his voice stronger, "She begged me to, so I stabbed her in the neck. I felt her die. She just, went so still, a-and stopped breathing. She stopped telling me it was- that it was going to be okay…"

"Oh kami," Nohara shuddered, a hand over her mouth.

"It's not okay." His arm fell away from his face, and Kakashi caught a flicker of pin wheeling red and black before it resolved into watery pool of black. "It's not okay and I'm sorry because she's d-dead and I'm not even though I should be and she shouldn't and I wish I was dea-"

"Stop," the silver haired boy finally choked out, "Just, don't say that. You're alive. She wanted you to live."

"I'm sorry," Obito sobbed, "I'm sorry."

"Idiot." He pulled his teammate up until he collapsed against him, and slung an arm around the Uchiha's shoulders. "We want you to live."

**XLIII.**

"How are they?" his girlfriend asked as he joined her at the table, pouring himself another cup of tea.

He thought about how his mother had taught him, slow and deliberate, so that nothing dripped out onto the table. Thinking about that helped him still the tremor in his fingers that threatened making him drop the pot all together. Kushina declined when he offered to refill her own cup.

"They're-" he started, before stopping and taking a scalding sip, "It's hard to say at this point. Obito-kun's resting now, all of the poison has been purged from his system and the damage to his lungs healed. Nohara-chan had Obito-kun put on her patients list, and got family visitation access for Kakashi-kun and I. Kakashi-kun's sitting with him now."

"What happened?"

"Kakashi-kun wasn't completely sure, but he thinks that Obito-kun may have been trying to-" he had to stop and take a breath, "Been trying to hurt himself or-"

Minato couldn't bring himself to say the rest. Either way, it seemed Kushina had figured it out herself, if the way her face paled was any indication.

"I knew he took what happened to Hakka-chan badly, but I didn't realize…"

"None of us did. Kakashi-kun told me that there was more to what happened than what ended up in the mission report," he said quietly.

"More?"

"Kakashi-kun had assumed that cause of death had been just the cave collapsing on her," he explained, his words sounding distant to his own ears, "But Obito-kun had been with her at the end. She asked him to give her a quick and painless death."

"And he did," he heard Kushina conclude, her voice faint with horror.

"Hai."

A lot of what had been going on with Obito-kun made more sense now. It hadn't been that the diagnosis of shell shock, depression, survivor's guilt, and coping with loss of an eye was wrong, just that the root cause of it had been unknown. To think that Obito-kun and been carrying around that awful truth with him this entire time.

All of his students had come to him fragile in their own ways. As a team, it had seemed like they had made each other strong enough to face their demons. But with Hakka-chan gone, Obito-kun drowning silently in his guilt, and Kakashi-kun losing himself in missions, he'd thought that he would be forced to watch helplessly as the rest of his team slipped through his fingers.

There was still hope, though. He'd felt it, as he looked at Kakashi-kun and Nohara-chan watching over Obito-kun.

Losing Hakka had fractured them, almost irreparably, but there was a chance to come together again. Moving forward would be hard, and things would be very different. He didn't doubt that. But what happened today had proved that not a single one of them was alone. They were still there for each other, to catch someone if they fell. To help them when everything seemed hopeless.

Reaching across the table, he settled a hand over Kushina's, both of them smiling tremulously when she adjusted their hands so they were clasped together.

"We'll be here for him," he told her softly, running his thumb across the back of her hand, "For all of them. We'll make it through this."

She met his gaze, azure eyes flashing with determination, and nodded.

**XLIV.**

"You were surprisingly easy to track down."

He didn't bother responding to or even looking at the speaker.

"Teme."

Predictable. Already irate over nothing.

There was a heavy sigh, before his old teammate slowly took a seat beside him.

"Orochimaru," he heard him say at last, wariness in his voice, "Did you do it?"

Silence reigned for a long stretch. Orochimaru sat comfortably in it, thinking on the question. Jiraiya, in comparison, seemed to be stewing in his own mounting tension. Just when it seemed that the fool would burst, the snake summoner spoke up.

"Do you mean Danzou?" At Jiraiya's terse nod, he went on. "No, I wasn't the one who had him killed."

"Do you know who did it?"

"I do."

"Who?" the other man pressed.

"It hardly matters anymore."

"'Hardly matters'?" the toad summoner sputtered, "You're under suspicion of assassination of a village elder, of treason, and you say that the identity of the real culprit 'hardly matters' when it could get the charges against you dismissed?"

"It wouldn't do any good."

"Are you-" Jiraiya paused, eyeing him incredulously, "Are you trying to protect this person?"

That comment earned the white haired man a flat look.

"_O_-kay. I knew that was a long shot. But seriously Orochi-teme, why aren't you giving me a name? You know I could help you."

"You could, but it would be at the expense of your prized student."

"How-?"

Orochimaru chose at that moment to toss the scroll he had been turning over in his hands at Jiraiya. The other man caught it and then spent a minute examining it over for seal traps. Once he'd found that there weren't any, he pulled it open and started scanning the content. The raven haired man watched as his teammate went stock still at what he saw in the scroll.

"That's impossible."

"Improbable for you, maybe, but entirely true and possible to me." His lips twitched into a smile as bitterness and pride coursed through him in equal measure. "We were outmaneuvered. I can respect that."

"But that means you'll be found guilty! You won't be able to return to Konoha!" Jiraiya exclaimed.

"I'm hardly innocent, Jiraiya," Orochimaru remarked calmly, "Some truths will stay buried, but my own will out. Sensei and the council will eventually find something legitimate to hold against me."

"So that's it then?" There was a familiar look in the white haired man's eyes, one usually reserved for him. "You'll just be a missing nin now?"

"Something like that, I suppose." He looked away from his teammate to continue overseeing his purple haired student practicing the new kata he'd taught her. "I suggest you get to taking care of whatever business she was referring to in the scroll. Even in death, she is not a force to be trifled with."

* * *

**AN: **I hate and love this chapter. Hate because like canon!Obito, I blame Kakashi for everything. Love because I have been waiting to write the Orochimaru scene for a long, long time. I keep hurting Obito though. Why do I keep doing that? Maybe because I'm a dick. At least, Minato's bit ended on an almost happy note?

Plug time! I've recently started reading Laterality by Kettobase and mirror, mirror by starlineshine. Check them out, I've been enjoying them so far!  
Shameless plug time! If you like the Avengers/Captain America and you like OC stories, check out my other story Perception!

**AN2:** I will be going back to past chapters and tagging them with warnings like I did at the beginning of this chapter.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Warning: child abuse alluded to

* * *

**XLV.**

"Can we visit Obito-nii?"

She glanced down at Shisui, her son's hand clutched in his own small one, gazing hopefully up at her. Itachi did not wear his own hope so openly on his face, but she knew her son. Both he and Shisui-kun were still a little too young to understand what was going on, but they did understand enough to know that something had been very wrong with their cousin for while now. However, between Obito-kun's episodes, Shisui's recent placement on a genin team, and the disapproval of Fugaku and Shisui-kun's parents, visiting had been hard.

"We'll check to see if he's free first," Mikoto said, carefully stooping to their level and placing a hand on either boy's head, "If not, I can always take you out to lunch. How does that sound?"

"Okay I guess," Shisui-kun replied for them both.

"Let me grab some things first."

Mikoto signed to one of the guards stationed at their house that she would be leaving the compound then gathered her emergency bag. Even though there was a lot less concern now than there had been when she was pregnant with Itachi about kidnapping or attacks, it was better to be safe than sorry. Especially when she was as heavily pregnant as she was now. She called for the boys once she was ready, amusement curling her lips when they flanked her protectively on their way out. Unnecessary, but sweet.

They eventually arrived at the apartment owned by Obito-kun's teammate, Hatake Kakashi. Obito-kun's legal residence was still listed as the house he had shared with his late grandmother on Uchiha land, but he hadn't been staying there since Obito-kun's last hospitalization. Minato-san had been tight-lipped with explanations, and Mikoto had not felt the need the press. As loathe as she was to admit, her cousin had been deteriorating under the care of the clan. If living with Hatake-san would help, she wouldn't stand in the way.

Surprisingly and unsurprisingly, Kushina answered the door. The stunned look on the redhead's face immediately gave way to a pleased grin.

"Mikoto-chan!" She glanced down and her eyes glittered. "And kiddies!"

"Kushina," the Uchiha woman greeted, well used to her friend's antics.

Shisui-kun frowned, mildly affronted, while Itachi somehow managed to convey exasperation through his blankness. Fugaku would have been impressed; she certainly was. Her friend seemed to know exactly what they were there for, and immediately ushered them in. Obito-kun was sitting with his teammate and his pretty medic friend, eating lunch. The oldest Uchiha boy squawked when Shisui-kun barreled into him, Itachi trailing sedately after and taking the chair at the table between where the Hatake boy and his cousin had been sitting.

"He looks better," Mikoto commented lightly to Kushina, as they left the children to get caught up.

"He does," the redheaded woman acknowledged.

"You do, too."

For a moment, Kushina looked as if she'd been struck, before ducking her head and pulling at one of the long strands of hair that had fallen forward from her shoulder.

"Ah, yeah." She chuckled, the sound a little hollow to the Uchiha's ears. "Thanks."

Reaching out slowly, Mikoto placed a hand on Kushina's distended middle.

"How is the little one coming along?"

The Uzumaki looked up again, the brittleness of her expression smoothing into one of true joy.

"The medic nin told us it would be a boy." Her smile was soft as she said it.

"Maybe they'll be friends," the dark haired woman suggested, moving her hand to her own belly.

"They better be. Better yet, they should be on a team together!"

"That will either be the makings of something amazing, or disastrous," Mikoto said dryly.

"Amazingly disastrous! Or disastrously amazing, dattebane!" Kushina crowed, before calming and looking down again, bracketing her bump gently with each of her hands. "Gonna love you so much baby boy. Mom's gonna take such good care of you, you'll see."

All Mikoto could do was smile, wondering why something so good made her want to cry.

Hormones, probably. She'd blame it on that.

**XLVI.**

In the middle of the night, she finds herself snapping awake, her body, her clothes, her bed sheets soaked in sweat. Panting, she would lever herself up and out of bed, out of her room. Ghosting through the halls, she would open every door of every room, checking each bed for an occupant. She wouldn't breathe easy until each bed's owner was accounted for. If even one was missing, her mind would spin and her body would seize and she would rush through the rest of the house searching, hunting for them.

It happened _every _night.

Thankfully, she always found them. _Every_ one.

Tonight was like many nights, standing in doorways, counting heads in beds. Even though she knew where she would find him, she always panicked when the last child wasn't in bed. She rushed to the linen closet close to where her own room was and pulled it open.

There, wedged between the closet wall and a stack of blankets, was Kabuto.

With a shaky exhale, she lowered herself to the floor and crawled a little closer. He was awake, watching her approach with troubled eyes. His arms unfolded from around himself, reaching back for her when she pulled him in and held him close.

Most nights, he said nothing. Just let her hold him long enough to reassure her that she'd truly gotten him back before returning him to his bed right next to Urushi-kun.

This wasn't one of those nights.

"Mother Nonou?"

"Hai, Kabuto-chan?"

"Are you sure I don't have to go back?"

Nonou tensed infinitesimally, then willed the stiffness to go away.

"I'm sure."

"He said we weren't supposed to leave the compound unless we were told. We had to follow the rules. If we didn't, we would be punished."

The sensation of poking needles went off behind her eyes. She squeezed them tightly shut.

"You're not going to be punished."

"He told me my punishment would be hurting you." His voice quieted to a whisper, almost as if confessing a treasured secret. "I never broke the rules."

"He's not going to hurt me," she promised him, unable to keep the sound of how wrecked she was out her words, "He's never going to hurt us again."

"Okay."

Who knew if he actually believed her? Who knew if she'd ever be able to erase the months he'd had to spend in that man's clutches from his mind? Kami knew, she'd never be able to forget what had been done to her, and what she had done. He'd taken her off the street, promising he'd make her better, make her worth something, and she'd believed him. She'd sewn so much suffering before she'd raised her head up and took a good look at the orders she'd followed.

At the children she'd ruined just as she'd been ruined.

It was foolish, thinking that maybe she could redeem herself now. That her hands could save instead of ruin these children. But the hokage seemed to think that she was worth taking a chance on. Capable of rehabilitating and raising these children who bore cracks and breaks in their souls similar to her own.

A cry drew her out of it. The nursery. One baby was crying, and soon, the others would start as well.

Releasing Kabuto gently and standing, she held out her hand to him in invitation. He took it without hesitation and they went to the nursery together. Several of the babies, Eri, Yoshiharu, Ryosuke, and Orino were wailing in full. The last two babies, Hisa and Miki, were awake and unbothered and fast asleep respectively. Nonou let go of Kabuto's hand and went to take the closest crying child, Yoshiharu, into her arms to start soothing. Slowly but surely, she settled one after the other - Eri needing to be settled twice. Soon, she turned to Kabuto and found him lingering near Hisa, the only infant still awake though not crying and staring back at him. Trusting that the baby would eventually drift off on her own, the orphanage matron tugged Kabuto away to his own room.

"He'll never hurt us ever again," she found herself promising him again as she placed his glasses on the nightstand and tucked him in.

She stayed with him, waiting until his eyes fluttered shut and his breathing finally deepened and slowed. And she stayed a little longer after, just because she could.

**XLVII.**

"This is really not what I expected when you said you needed a favor."

And truly it was. They were out in the ass end of nowhere, better known as Fang country. As if the location wasn't strange enough, the company was as well. Who would have thought those little street rats her teammate had left for would grow up so interesting? Now that she thought about it, Jiraiya seemed to just have that effect. His little student back in Konoha was all set to become the next hokage, if the snide comments she'd been treated to the last time she'd spent in Orochimaru's company were anything to go by.

It was odd, thinking of him now.

Orochimaru, a missing nin. After playing the part of a loyal Konoha ninja better than she had managed in over a decade, he was the one who ended up a missing nin. And Jiraiya, still surprisingly tight lipped concerning that. Since he wasn't trying to wheedle one of usual stupid favors - like sneaking him into the hidden village that consisted almost purely of women - she'd figured he wanted her help to track down their wayward teammate. But this seemed to have nothing to do with that. Maybe.

She eyed the snake coiled around the blue haired woman's neck with narrowed eyes.

"Can you help him?" Jiraiya eventually asked, as she looked over her potential patient.

"Of course," she sniffed.

The damage to the red haired man was extensive. His legs were the worst off, but some of it had healed a bit on his own since however long ago he was injured. The real issue was his entire body seemed warped, withered by something. It was awful and even without his rebel status, if he had been left to seek treatment in Rain, he would've been hard pressed to find anyone who could even begin to figure out what was wrong and try to fix it. Though she didn't have access to the best facilities here in Fang country, she'd prepared and stocked up with everything she should need to be able to treat him. Looking him over once more, she found it was hard to believe that this man had almost single-handedly defeated the man who had once soundly defeated her own team, and on a whim spared and named them instead of killing them.

Tsunade set to work on him immediately, Shizune there with her to assist. The blue haired woman, Konan, was there as well. To help, or maybe to keep her from doing any harm while the man was unconscious maybe. It might've irked her, but she was focused more on her healing and the reptile resting along the other woman's shoulders. When she decided to take a break and allow Shizune to explore (with one of her slug summons to accompany her), she turned her attention on Konan, or more specifically to the snake.

"Are you a summon?"

All she got in response from the snake was a flat stare and a flick of the tongue.

"Yes, she is," the blue haired woman eventually offered.

"Are you her summoner?" Tsunade asked, forcing her tone to sound casual.

"No," Konan responded with a slight shake of her head, "She was sent to us."

"By who?" _Was it-?_

"We still don't know." The older woman's gaze cut sharply to her at the admittance. "All we know is that she acts on behalf of the one she calls her 'mistress' and that Sensei knows her somehow."

Mistress? Since when had anyone but her teammate had access to the snake contract? Or was it actually him, and this was some sort of ruse?

"What is the summon's purpose?" She pressed.

"To guide us on her mistress's behalf."

"You trust the guidance of a proxy of someone you've never met?"

"We haven't had a reason not to, so far." Konan was serene in the face of Tsunade's incredulity. "Her intervention saved Yahiko, and possibly all of our lives. And it brought sensei, and you, to us."

"Still." The blonde cocked an eyebrow at her. "Is there something she wants?"

"Of course. But we were told we would be allowed to refuse her request if we chose to."

"Sounds too good to be true for you. And like a lousy deal for her."

"It isn't if we accept."

"And will you?"

"I think we will." Konan smiled at the unasked question in her expression. "Everything she's done so far has been in good faith. We've never been the kind of people who disregard that kind of gesture. It also helps that Sensei vouched for her."

Yes, she would definitely be interrogating Jiraiya about this later. Her eyes traced the other woman's face searchingly.

"So what does she want exactly?"

After a considering silence, the blue haired woman eventually answered with a wry chuckle, "For us to stop a bad guy and blow up his secret lair."

Tsunade blinked. "You're kidding."

"The mistress may have phrased it differently, a little more cryptic and dramatically, but I like Yahiko's interpretation better."

The healer pinched the bridge of her nose. It was stuff like this that reminded her why she could only take her teammates, and apparently anyone taught by them, in small doses. She really needed to wring answers out of Jiraiya as soon as she could grab Shizune and get the hell out of this country immediately. Preferably before she let him and his ilk drag her any further into whatever mess this would turn out to be.

* * *

**AN1:** Confession - I bawled my eyes out during the Mikoto/Kushina part. I force depressed myself by watching AnoHana, Glee S5E3, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Kung Fu Panda 2, and I still don't know if it was necessary in helping me write. Just like I made an entire music playlist just to see if that would help (I'll put it in my profile bio in case anyone needs insight into my brain/this story via music). Anyway, at least the chapter is finally out.

_Fun-ish Things:_ Who the hell knew that Obito had a grandma? I didn't. (Sorry grandma, you've been sacrificed for the sake of story continuity.) This chapter was written from all female perspectives and passes the Bechdel test. (Unfortunately, unlikely to ever happen in this story ever again...)

**AN2:** It's been a while since this happened, but is still important and relevant to me. Two users here on FFnet that I am acquainted with have both been plagiarized by the same user, Seishun-Kyousoukyou. I want to warn all of you to watch out for this user and any other person who tries to plagiarize. No one deserves to have their work stolen and the credit for it given to someone else. If you have any further questions about this, feel free to contact me and ask.


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